Plans have now been announced for the repurposing of a well-known downtown Phoenix landmark into a new location for the national non-profit Goodwill Industries International.
Located at 302 W. Van Buren Avenue, the building in question was built in 1925 and has served as the long-time home of a Firestone Tire and Rubber Company service station.
Listed in 1985 on the National Register of Historic Places, the building is valued by preservationists for its Streamline Moderne architectural style, although its façade was at one point modernized.
Firestone ceased operations in the building some three years ago.
Now Goodwill wants to transform the one-story structure into a new thrift store and donation center. The project is being undertaken by JAG Development of Phoenix, which has extensive experience in restoration work, with a focus on downtown Phoenix revitalization efforts.
The project will see a reconfiguration of former garage space into store and office space, as well as new landscaping along North 3rd Avenue, which runs along the east side of the building.
Goodwill has made it a practice to open new stores in repurposed buildings: earlier this month it opened a facility in a former Office Max building in Decatur, Alabama; last month it opened a store in a one-time CVS location in Dayton, Ohio.
Founded in 1902 in Boston, Goodwill provides a wide array of community-based services, including job training and transitional housing for veterans and disabled people, among others.
It provides those services for an estimated nearly 40 million people on an annual basis and is supported by revenue from its network of more than 3,200 thrift stores.
Those stores, according to a 2016 estimate, take in nearly $5 billion yearly.
Goodwill’s emphasis on veterans’ support services was cemented in 1947 when it entered into a joint agreement with the federal Veterans Administration to build nearly 100 new stores and centers across the country, all with the mission of serving World War II veterans.
By Garry Boulard
