Home Improvement Store Will Open At Ernst Site

The former Ernst Home Center store at 29th and Southeast Boulevard is reopening this spring as an independent outlet for the same kinds of home improvement products that Ernst sold.

The Heights Home Center and Nursery is planning a grand opening next week, said owner Stanley G. Jensen.

Ernst closed its store in January as part of a bankruptcy filed by the chain last year. Jensen said he acquired the lease to the building after it was released by the bankruptcy court.

The location had been doing good business despite the financial problems of the larger Ernst chain, Jensen said.

The new store will carry the usual line of home improvement products such as paint, plumbing, tools and electrical supplies. It will also have a nursery with gardening products and plants.

“I’m going to be competitive,” Jensen said about his prices.

He said the demand for home improvement products on the South Hill is high.

Jensen was raised in Spokane and spent 28 years as a national accounts executive for Jensen Distributing Services, a family-owned business.

Jensen Distributing was a wholesale supplier for Ernst.

“It is a business I know and understand,” he said.

He expects to hire 50 full- and part-time employees and described the venture as a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

The store has 40,000 square feet of retail space - small compared with Eagle Hardware or Home Base, which have stores of nearly 100,000 square feet, he said.

As a result, Heights Home Center and Nursery won’t have the large quantities of lumber or other construction materials that typically draw business from contractors.

He said Heights Home Center and Nursery will focus its sales on homeowners and do-it-yourself projects.

, DataTimes