Father/son duo looks to build lumber business

The Ritzville Lumber store’s shelves are now stocked full of merchandise and the inventory plans to continue to grow over the next couple of months. David Ahrens and his son, Nick, currently run the lumber and hardware supply store that used to be known as Best Building Supply.

The father and son duo has been working to remodel and refurbish the shop, after officially opening the store doors on Jan. 14. The Ahrens main change to the shop is the hardwood floors that they refurbished since the existing surface had been installed in 1952.

The Ahrens moved the inventory and shelving from their previous store that they had owned in Purdy, into the Ritzville shop. The Ahrens main focus for the business is to make the store convenient and accessible to all of their customers.

The Ahrens decided to relocate to a new community when large industry and competition moved into the area. A Home Depot store had been located just a few miles from their store and they remained competitive for almost 10 years.

“We looked into stores all over, some in Washington and in California. We missed out on some of the one’s we were interested in, and there were others that were a good deal, but not in a good neighborhood,” said David.

Eventually, the Ahrens found out about the Ritzville location through a vendor and focused on purchasing the shop. Unfortunately, the economy took a turn for the worse and the Ahrens had difficulty receiving financing from banks.

The banks viewed the business as a “start-up” business and the Ahrens could not seem to find a bank to loan them money. But with the help of a friend, who is a lawyer, the Ahrens found out about the Tri County Economic Development District (TEDD) Non-Profit Corporation.

TEDD focuses on rural development in Ferry, Pend Oreille and Stevens counties, supplying loans and grant money to help local businesses. There are five different TEDD branches in the state of Washington, scattered throughout the entire state.

TEDD has a rural opportunities loan fund that assists business owners with debt support in order to start-up a business or help fund the current business. It helps businesses that do not qualify for traditional loans, such as the Ahrens, and can help provide business with the opportunity to expand.

The rural opportunities loan fund is available in 10 Eastern Washington counties, Adams County being one of them. The application is about 15 pages long and deals with all aspects of the intended business, asking for more information on the plans of the business, especially about how many employees the business intends on employing.

Currently, the Ahrens run the business by themselves, but hope they can eventually hire four or five other employees to help with the inventory. When the Ahrens first moved into the building, they hired 10 people to assist them for a couple months.

Most of the individuals that they hired had just lost their jobs because of the Perkins closure and the Ahrens had the chance to at least give them part-time jobs. The store only had five shelves in it, which were removed and then the floor replaced.

Since the Ahrens have not lived in a farming community before, their focus is to help local farmers in any way possible, and hope local farmers help to give them an idea of what supplies are in high demand during the harvest season.

To help provide more services to customers, Ritzville Lumber also has a variety of equipment that can be rented out from the store. The room that holds the available for rent items is still being remodeled, but the Ahrens hope to have the service up and running soon.

Some of the items that should be available for rent are a crane that lifts sheetrock, a sander, a drainpipe snake, sawzall and other equipment as it becomes available. The Ahrens want to help their customers in anyway possible and encourage customers to come in to ask and to see what is currently available for rent.

The Ahrens used to live in the Puget Sound area, and brought some inventory with them that they realize might not be as common over here, such as slug bait and moss killer. They are also in the process of contacting their distributor for the fishing gear since a few of the items are for saltwater purposes.

While the business is a lumber supply store, the shop also has a selection of fireplaces/stoves, guns, ammo, fishing gear, paint and typical hardware supplies. The Ahrens are working on updating and organizing the lumber shop, and are waiting for their first big shipment, which should be delivered later in the week.

Since the store opened, three guns have already been sold and the Ahrens hope that the guns continue the sell. Even if customers are interested in buying a gun that is not currently in stock, customers can visit http://galleryofguns.com and enter the Gold Card number specific to Ritzville Lumber, 4234652.

If the guns and ammo prove to be popular, the Ahrens hope to expand their stock from what it currently is. The first year of the business is going to be a learning process to see what is in high demand in a farming community compared to the last store they ran.

David’s wife, Nancy, still lives at the family’s home in Longbranch, and since Nick and David relocated to the area, they have not had to time to visit. Nancy also has been unable to visit due to snow but she remains active in her job, operating a property management company in the Longbranch area.

The long-term plan for the Ahrens is to have Nick take over Ritzville Lumber after a few years and allow David to retire and move home with his wife. In the meantime, David continues to work on the Model A he is refurbishing for his wife and that he hopes to showcase in the shop when it is completed.

David’s hobby for the last 17 years has been building go-karts and mini-bikes that he sold in his shop. Today, he builds them solely for his grandchildren but he does currently have a few in the shop.

The current project he is working on for his grandchildren is a replica of a Stryker, complete with night vision cameras, an air cannon for noise purposes and working lights inside of the vehicle. Both of the Ahrens like working on equipment, but Nick’s focus is slightly different.

Nick is a small engine repairman and hopes to be able to start providing the service within the Ritzville Lumber store. In the meantime, he is working on his car in the lumber shop and continues to work with small engine parts.

The Ahrens continue to remodel and update the shop; one of the current projects is expanding the restrooms. The restrooms in the shop did not have a hot water connection until recently, and the Ahrens want to keep updating for convenience.

The most important part of the remodel is some of the things that the Ahrens plan not to change in order to preserve the history of the building. Though they redid the main part of the store floor, they preserved parts of it that still have numbers written as markers for the ice rink that used to be in the building.

Ritzville Lumber is located at 703 W. First Avenue in Ritzville, and the store phone number is 659-4040. Ritzville Lumber is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.