84 Lumber location to open in December

Sep. 23--A Pennsylvania-based building supply chain will open a new store in Beaufort in December that is expected to create 10 to 15 jobs, despite the downturn in the housing market.

The new 84 Lumber store, the private company's thirteenth in the state, will be located at the corner of Trask Parkway and Parker Drive.

Company spokeswoman Robyn Hall said new locations are opening nationwide in "proven high-growth areas," noting a twelfth location slated to open in Greenville in November.

A U.S. Census Bureau report released this month shows Beaufort County was the 40th fastest-growing county in the country last year, based on the percentage increase in the number of houses, 5.9 percent.

However, last year's housing construction numbers don't reflect trends in the market's next cog -- home sales. Lowcountry Council of Governments Planning Director Ginnie Kozak and Beaufort County Association of Realtors President Pat Harvey Palmer both said there are too many homes in the area and too few buyers.

"Every single Realtor is saying the same thing: It's just so slow," Palmer said. "It's not completely dead, 100 percent, but it's still way down compared to the way things were. We were spoiled."

Bobby Goshorn, an area sales manager with the building supply chain Builders FirstSource, estimated the building supply market was off 45 percent from last year.

"If I was having to open a new (store), this is not the time I would do it. It's tough right now," he said. "There's a lot of houses just sitting."

Builders FirstSource is a national chain with local locations in Beaufort and Ridgeland and on Hilton Head Island.

However, Palmer said reports from the state and national Realtors associations indicate a rebound coming at the end of the year or early next year. Similarly, Goshorn guessed a rebound could come early next year.

Planning documents 84 Lumber submitted to county officials through Bluffton-based J.K. Tiller Associates, a land planning and architecture firm, list some details of the facility.

The company is expected to invest $3 million in the site over five years and build 34,450 square feet of retail and office space.

Hall said the company does not disclose wage information, though a career with the company includes "excellent benefits" and can be "very lucrative" according the company's profiles on job hunting Web sites. Managers aside, the company usually hires locally, Hall added.

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