The more than 68,000-square-foot facility in Beaufort includes a 3,200-square-foot retail operation, 2,260 square feet of office space, 28,990 square feet of interior storage and 33,600 square feet of storage sheds. The location employs nine workers.

84 Lumber also said it will donate the $20,000 it intended to spend on a grand opening for its new South Houston location to the Greater Houston Area Chapter of the American Red Cross to help house and feed those displaced by Hurricane Ike.

The South Houston store opened just a week before Ike made landfall, devastating Texas’ Gulf Coast region.

“Clearly, it’s much more important for us to address the devastating impact that Hurricane Ike has had on so many lives in the Houston area than it is to have a grand opening party,” 84 Lumber owner and president Maggie Hardy Magerko said. “It’s been the philosophy of our company, since its founding by my father in 1956, that we be involved in the communities where we do business and I hope this donation, in some small way, helps some of the many people affected by the damage and disruption created by Hurricane Ike.”

The construction distributor also donated $10,000 worth of building materials to Red Cross chapters in Greater Houston and South Texas and re-opened other stores in the Houston area that were forced to close during the storm

“While the 84 Lumber stores, as most businesses, received some amount of damage and are without power, generators are in place so the stores can operate and serve customers,” the company said in a statement.