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Hardware Hawaii
plans lumberyard
near MidPac site
The company says the 60,000-
By Tim Ruel
square-foot site in Mapunapuna
will be geared for contractors
Star-BulletinHardware Hawaii True Value, which runs a total of two stores in Kailua and Kaneohe, plans to open a lumberyard in Mapunapuna later this year, right near where MidPac Lumber closed just months ago.
The company has agreed with landowner Damon Estate to lease a 60,000-square-foot lot on Mapunapuna Street.
Hardware Hawaii already runs a lumber distribution facility on 2.3 acres in Kapaa Quarry on the Windward side of Oahu.
"Lumber is more than one-half of our business," said David Lundquist, owner, president and chief executive of Hardware Hawaii and son of the late R. Dana Lundquist, who founded the company in 1954.
The new lumberyard would bring more competition to Home Depot Inc. and City Mill, which both have stores in nearby Iwilei. Atlanta-based Home Depot also plans to open a second store in Pearl City, where locally owned City Mill already has an outlet.
Hardware Hawaii's sales have risen 187.5 percent in the past decade, to $23 million for the fiscal year ending April 2000 from $8 million in 1990, according to the company.
Lundquist and his brother Barry, who is chief operating officer of Hardware Hawaii, will oversee construction on the Mapunapuna lot. Earlier this month, the Lundquists registered the corporate name Hardware Hawaii Lumber LLC with the state.
Hardware Hawaii plans to gear the lumberyard in Mapunapuna toward contractors. Lundquist could not provide further details of the new location, which is still being planned.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge forced MidPac Lumber Co., founded in 1956, into Chapter 7 liquidation earlier this year, just months after MidPac announced a closing sale in November.
