LAKE FOREST

The HomeBase home and garden store, one of the east side’s first “big box” retail stores, is getting ready to close its doors after six years in the Foothill Ranch Towne Center mall.

Company spokeswoman Jennifer Love said the closure has nothing to do with the opening next month of a Home Depot, a big competitor of HomeBase, a few miles away at Lake Forest Drive and Rancho Parkway.

“Competition is not new to us,” Love said. “Ninety-eight percent of all HomeBase stores have some sort of big box competitor within three miles.”

Last year, Home Depot won approval of its plan to open a store in Lake Forest after assuring city officials that both companies could survive in the same area.

HomeBase plans to open a new store in its Towne Center building that will sell mainly carpets, linen and other home furnishing items.