hriels

Rrrm:ns

Builders FirstSource will build a 125,000-sq. ft. DC and rebar fabrication plant on 23 acres in St. Lucie County, Fl.; operations should start in the summer and the complex eventually will include a floor/roof truss plant ...

Ken's Lumber & Hardware, Frisco, Tx., closed Jan. 16 after 30 years under owner Ken Talley, who has sold the property

Carter Lumber Co. is moving its Royerton, In., location after 38 y€ars to the vacated Furrow Luwber store as early as the spring

Stock Building Supply is evaluating sites on I-75 from Acworth to Cartersville, Ga., for a new retail and wholesale location ...

Perry County Building Center, Pinckneyville, Il., was permanently closed lan.24 by Richard and Judy Bathon, owners for the last 17 years...

Noble Ace Hardware is the new name for Etbridge True Value, Elbridge, N.Y., with its sale to Kenneth and Robert Noble, operators of four ather Ace stores; Fred and Linda Weisskopf, owners for the last 27 yearc, have retired

Little & Steele True Value Hardware, Franklin Pike. Tn., is closing

Lowe's Cos. recently opened ne$/ stores in Lincolnwood, Il.; Pembroke Pines, Fl.; Sterling Heights, Mi.; Glenmont, N.Y.; Green, Milford and Mt. Vernon, Oh., and Montgomery, Pa.

Lowe's will build a $17.8 million, 228,000-sq. ft. replacement DC on 52 acres in Hagerstown, Md.; will open a store-later this year in Oswego, N.Y., and received planning board approval to build a 165,830-sq. ft. store in Brunswick, Me.

Lowe's is expanding its number of operating divisions from three to five: the Northeast (headed by Rick Damrom), Southeast (under Greg Wessing), North Central (Nick Canter), South Central (Mike Brown), and West (Robert Wagner)...

Home Depot will spend $3.7 billion in fiscal 2004 to open 175 new locations and upgrade older home centers ... the company plans to buy back as much as $1 billion in stock

Menard's is seeking approval to build a 162,000-sq- ft. store in Cicero, Il.; is nearing completion of a 250,000-sq. ft. replacement store in Duluth, Mn.; will expand its 90,000-sq. ft. Hermantown, Mn.,location to 168,000 sq. ft. and its 165,000-sq. ft. Superior, Mn., unit to 250,000 sq. ft., and completed its sale of 19.3 acres near its Winona, Mn., store to Wal-Mart for $4.9 million ...

West Branch Paint Supply, West Branch, Mi., has acquir6d ihe former site of Scott's True Value to expand existing operations...

Scotty's has converted its Plant City and Bradenton, Fl.. stores into "flea markets," leasing sales space to individuals by the square foot; if the Plant City Outlet Mall and Brsdenton Outlet Mall arc successful, the concept could be rolled out to other locations ...

Custer's Cashway Lumber, Marion, In., closed since 2001, was leveled by a Jan. 16 fire; arson is suspected ...

Ilnor:slrrns/tlrurrcrun:ns

Saxonville USA sold its 30,400sq. ft. DC on three acres in Pennsauken, N.J., for $900,000 to Aruvil Properties, a division of building material/fencing accessory distributor Aruvil International /nc.: Saxonville had shuttered the warehouse last year

Mebane Lumber Co., Mebane, N.C., has permanently closed its sawmill, sold the property for residential development, and will auction off all buildings, equipment and machinery March 13

Thomas Wood Preserving, Elliott, Ms., lost a lumber drying building to a Jan. 11 fire caused by a short in an electrical motor

Pine BeIt Wood Products, LLC, Picayune, Ms., has filed bankruptcy and will liquidate its treating facilities, equipment and inventory at a Feb. 19 auction

Eltis Lumber Co., Shelby, N.C., has added pallet heat treating systems ...

Trex Co., /nc., Winchester, Va., has selected a 100-acre site in Olive Branch. Ms.. for its third composite decking and railing manufacturing plant; a mid-2005 start-up is anticipated ...

Hoover Treated Wood, Products, Thomson, Ga., opened a FRTW treating plant in Winston, Or. ...

Ward Clapboard Mill, Moretown, Vt., lost its planing operations in a Jan. 5 fire evidently started by a wood stove; sawing"operations were spared

Me adWe sn ac o C orp., Stamford, Ct., early this year will begin trimming about 1,000 jobs (3-3Vo of its workforce) and closing unspecified plants in hopes of increasing eamings by $500 million

Potlatch Corp. sold a 96-acre tract along the Mississippi River in Brainerd Lakes, Mn.. to the state of Minnesota...

Housing starts in December (latest figures) increased l.l%o to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.088 million ... single-family starts slipped 0.6Vo to 1.664 mil-

(Please tarn to page 38)

Composites SAy. .

.A/a Painting

AIo Warpi.g

Cracking

A/o Peeling

A/a Insects

^A/a Rotting No No Termites

A/a'W'ater Damage

Distributed

All Hardware and Accessories in Stock

Premier Composite Decking

Prouides good naction when wet

Barefoot fie"db - taill neuer splinter

Neuer needs sanding, painting, staining or ueather-proofing

Extremely durable - will neuer split, splinter, rot or decal

Made with Strandex technologlt

Resistant to termites and resists mould and mildew

Look, fe.el and beauty of natural uood without tLte maxntenance

Innouatiue solution for long-lasting decks, porches and balconies

Sold in a range of colours

Matching railing slstems auailab le

Spegies

Western Red Cedar

Incense Cedar

Redwood

Hem-Fir Douglas Fir

Pine .White Fir

Alder

Produgts

Fingerjoint Boards

. Pattern Sidings

Spa Components

Engineered Products

Edge-Glued Panels

,12Dry Kilns for Custom Drying