A longtime Spokane business, South Regal Lumber Yard Inc., plans to close by early next year and consolidate with an affiliated business, West Plains Building Supply, says a co-owner of the two operations.

John Case, the co-owner and president of South Regal Lumber Yard, says the consolidation of family businesses into one operation is occurring largely because the South Hill building supply store has struggled for the past few years.

Case also says someone is acquiring the 9-acre lumber yard site at 5415 S. Regal, but he declines to identify the buyer or disclose plans for the land. The lumber yard has operated there since 1972, after moving from the Lincoln Heights area where Case's father opened the business in 1949.

He says a land ownership exchange is expected to be completed soon under a property-swap agreement, and the new owner also is acquiring adjacent land to the north. Case says Cornerstone Property Advisors LLC, of Spokane, is handling the agreement.

"They'll have a big strip of land from 53rd to 55th on the east side of Regal," Case says. He adds, "Business has been kind of tough for the last four or five years, and it reached a point the property was worth more than the business."

Case declines to disclose the location of the property he and other business owners will receive in the swap, but says, "The property we're trading it for already has existing businesses," and is near the Regal Street property.

He referred additional questions to an agent at Cornerstone, who couldn't be reached immediately for comment.

Case says the South Regal Lumber Yard employs seven full-time and three part-time workers, and about half of them are expected to move into positions at the West Plains store, at 10812 W. Geiger Blvd.

The other workers have said they don't want to commute and will be laid off when the South Hill store closes, Case says.

He says the West Plains store opened about eight years ago and sells the same lines of retail building supplies as South Regal Lumber Yard, including lumber, plywood, windows, doors, and trims. The West Plains store has four full-time employees, he says.