Goodwill of Middle Georgia opened its newest location with a crowd and fanfare, Thursday morning, in Augusta’s medical district.
Mayor Garnett Johnson and Augusta Commissioners Jordan Johnson and Francine Scott joined the Augusta Chamber of Commerce at the corner of Walton Way and 15th Street, the former site of Rite Aid, for a ribbon-cutting celebrating the new Goodwill store and donation center.
Alongside Chamber members and Goodwill staff, the new store’s first customers were there for the festivities, forming a line from the doors around to the building’s left side wall. The ceremony was complete with an invocation from Curtis Baptist Church family pastor Ben Palacz, and a blessing from Fr. Solomon Kaanan, parochial vicar at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church.
The Goodwill of Middle Georgia began renovations on the Walton Way building early last year. The latest facility is the 18th retail location across 35 counties, which reach as far as Macon.
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Jim Stiff, president of Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia & the CSRA, said that the medical district has been on his radar as a potential location ever since coming to Augusta to found the regional hub in 1996.
“We knew that there were people that were underemployed or unemployed in the area, but we also knew that there was a lot of financial strength here because of the medical community,” Stiff said. “And we kind of like to be like Robin Hood.”
The Walton Way corridor seemed a viable area to set up shop because of how much higher disposable income would likely be flowing through, Stiff noted.
“We’ve come and we’ve strategically picked this location because we believe it can lift up the local community, give them jobs, give them education and training,” he said, noting some 20 employees for the Walton Way donation center, who were recruited through one of Goodwill’s job fairs. “And then you begin to renew the neighborhood, one career one family at a time.”
Stiff estimates the 18 locations, both retail stores and donation centers among them, and not counting the career centers (such as Helm’s College), cover the CSRA, so that one Goodwill site is roughly five miles from the next.
Growth toward farther reaches of the region could still be on the horizon, however.
“Then we have to really look at the communities that are on the outskirts of Augusta, like Thompson,” said Stiff. “So I think our expansion maybe will be into secondary markets outside of Augusta, as the next step.”
The new Goodwill retail store and donation center is located at 1505 Walton Way.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
