REDMOND – Two years after 84 Lumber Co. announced it would open a showroom, office space and warehouse at an old lumberyard east of town, the $3.9 billion construction-materials provider has targeted early October as its opening date.

Based in Eighty Four, Pa., the company provides construction materials and services mostly to residential contractors and has more than 475 locations, including 24 component manufacturing facilities, according to its Web site, www.84lumber.com.

The company delayed its Redmond opening to determine whether the old Ponderosa Mouldings building could be salvaged, said Tom Gilbert, manager of the new facility. The building has sat vacant on the 10-acre lumberyard site since Ponderosa Mouldings ceased operations in 2003.

The company chose Redmond in 2005 for the 95,000-square-foot building’s location near a rail spur on 10 acres off East Antler Avenue, for the building’s potential to be remodeled and for Central Oregon’s fast growth, Gilbert said.

Renovations will cost $2.5 million to $3 million, he said.

Unlike The Home Depot and Lowe’s, which sell most of their lumber products to do-it-yourselfers, 84 Lumber does most of its business through professional contractors, often bringing materials to the job site, said Robyn Hall, company spokeswoman.

”When we take a look at markets we’re going into, we look for significant growth in the housing industry,” Hall said. ”The company felt that Central Oregon was an area that in the next several years would be developing.”

The Home Depot and Lowe’s are planning stores in Redmond and currently operate in north Bend.

The entrance of 84 Lumber into Central Oregon’s tightening housing market will spark competition among the companies providing builders with supplies, including Hillsboro-based Parr Lumber and Bend-based Miller Lumber, both of which have Redmond locations.

”If I were 84 Lumber, I would delay my entry into the market,” said Nate Bond, director of sales for Parr Lumber in Hillsboro. ”The market had been very strong, but (building) permits are way down, and I’m not sure how long it’s going to last.”

Miller Lumber representatives could not be reached for comment.

Hall said the company is not basing its opening on the current housing market but on long-term growth projections.

”Even though certain areas of the country are in a downturn, others continue to plug along. That’s where we open new locations,” Hall said.

The company typically selects a location that has 3,000 new housing starts within a 25-mile radius in the course of a year, Hall said.

From July 2006 through June 2007, 2,324 new single-family housing permits were filed in Jefferson, Crook and Deschutes counties, said Don Patton, owner of Redmond-based Cascade Central Business Consultants. Patton believes the number, down 48.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, will dip further in the coming year.

”Nobody knows what the current Central Oregon housing market is or what it should be,” Patton said. ”I’ve got to believe that we will establish a niche and keep on going, but we’re not going to see a boom like we had in 2005-2006 for a long time.”

Parr Lumber has the benefit of several locations throughout Central Oregon, including Prineville, Madras, Redmond and Bend, Patton said, while 84 Lumber will have its one location.

”Sure, people are going to be checking them out to see if it’s a better mousetrap,” Patton said. ”If it’s not, they go back. But you might have a challenge (as a customer) getting your product (in Redmond) if you live in Warm Springs.”