Goodwill move brings it all together

On the heels of announcing a site for a new corporate headquarters, Goodwill Industries plans an even larger facility at 72nd and F Streets that will allow the nonprofit group to consolidate several operations for the first time.

Goodwill is leasing nearly 92,000 square feet in the Crown Industrial Center, bringing to full occupancy the nearly 300,000-square-foot building, a former can manufacturing plant that new owners subdivided in 2007 for multiple uses.

Randy Parks, vice president of Goodwill's retail operations, said: “We're taking a bunch of different operations we have located throughout the town and combining in the one so we can increase our efficiencies. It's a pretty diverse operation.”

The new facility, to be called a retail operations center, will house these functions:

--Central production facility. Currently located at the 41st and Pacific Streets headquarters, this facility is where employees sort donations to be resold at its stores or to a secondary market. Goodwill plans to move its headquarters in September to a 70,000-square-foot space in Benson Park Plaza, 72nd Street and Ames Avenue, originally built for a Steve & Barry's clothing store. (The national retailer filed for bankruptcy in July 2008, and the store never opened.)

--Transportation and warehouse department. The current headquarters also serves as the transportation hub for the group's fleet of trucks. The 41st and Pacific site also is home to a 15,000-square-foot basement warehouse, but Goodwill's growth has required an additional 20 off-site trailers. The new retail operations center will consolidate all warehouse space into one location.

--Commercial contracts department. Better known for its retail stores, Goodwill also operates services such as lawn maintenance and janitorial work that it provides to commercial businesses on a contract basis. The current offices that coordinate those functions now also are at 41st and Pacific and will relocate to the 72nd and F facility, where additional space will allow for piecemeal contract work such as envelope stuffing.

--Computer recycling operations and repurposed computer store. Goodwill takes donated computers, wipes out the hard drives, installs new operating systems and resells them. The processing now is done at 76th and F Streets, and a company store at 144th and L Streets dedicates roughly 200 to 300 square feet of space to sell computers. The new retail operations center has about 2,000 square feet for both the processing of donated computers and a special computer store with its own register and front door. (The store at 144th and L will remain open, but Goodwill will no longer lease the space at 76th and F Streets.)

--Outlet store. Goodwill's retail stores sell a variety of donated items and clothing, but clothing that doesn't sell after four weeks is repackaged and sold by the pound at outlet stores. A store at 36th and Q Streets currently uses about 10,000 square feet for outlet sales, but the store's lease expires at the end of June. It will move to the new retail operations center.

Other Goodwill operations across the country have facilities that similarly combine several uses under one roof, but this will be the first for the Omaha metro area, Parks said.

Parks said he looked for the right space for more than two years before settling on the Crown Industrial Center.

With Goodwill, the building will be fully leased, said R.J. Neary, a broker with Investors Realty who represented the nonprofit organization in the transaction and whose firm also manages the building.

Crown Cork & Seal leases about 120,000 square feet to make Spam cans. Outlook Nebraska, a nonprofit organization that teams with Nebraska companies to employ blind workers, is leasing 78,500 square feet.

Parks said Goodwill had outgrown the headquarters building it has occupied for nearly 50 years. The two new facilities will provide room for future growth as well as help the organization work more efficiently so that it can better support its mission, he said.

The Omaha-based Goodwill serves eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa with a mission of changing lives and strengthening communities through education, training and work. Goodwill, which trains people for employment and offers jobs to the disabled, has 11 retail/donation facilities, an online store (www.shopgoodwill.com), and outbound mission-related facilities in north and south Omaha.

Goodwill purchased the vacant building at 72nd and Ames for $5.9 million. The Seldin family, whose Seldin Co. owns Benson Park Plaza, donated the land and parking lot to Goodwill. That facility also will house a 25,000-square-foot retail and donation center, scheduled to open in July.

The retail operations center at 72nd and F, which Goodwill is leasing for at least 11 years, is scheduled to open in mid-June after renovations of more than $2 million, the cost of which Goodwill and the landlords will share.

Contact the writer:

444-1183, christine.laue@owh.com

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