Heights Home Center & Nursery, a Spokane home-improvement store located near the southeast corner of 29th Avenue and Southeast Boulevard on Spokanes South Hill, plans to close its doors at the end of next month, says store owner Stanley G. Jensen.


Were running out of money and the rent is extremely high here, contends Jensen. He says that other factors also are contributing to the closure of the 3-year-old store, located at 2520 E. 29th. However, he declines to discuss those factors in detail.


Heights Home Center, which sells home-improvement and nursery items, currently employs about 40 people, all of whom will be laid off next month, Jensen says.


Heights Home Center plans to hold a close-out sale soon to sell off the stores remaining inventory, Jensen says. He says he doesnt have any plans currently to reopen the store in a new location.


Heights Home Center opened in April 1997 in a 50,000-square-foot location, which formerly had housed an Ernst Home Center Inc. store. Seattle-based Ernst, which had operated four stores in the Spokane area, closed all of its retail outlets here after filing for bankruptcy in 1996.