EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio – Renovation work has begun on a long-vacant downtown building where a new Goodwill Industries store and training center will be located.

The city’s Design Review Board issued a certificate of appropriateness Monday for the building at 115 W. Fifth St. when board members met with the project architect.

Mary E. McDonnell of MK Architectural Productions of Canfield submitted an application for the two-story building that will house a retail store and donation center on the ground floor and more than 20 social service agency offices and a training center and classrooms on the upper floor.

Each floor spans 6,000 square feet.

Board President Scott Shepherd said the building originally was used as a car dealership and,  later, a Knights of Columbus hall and a church.

The owner was listed on the application as Kimpres Real Estate LLC, with Lisbon resident Erik Liber as president.

Goodwill Industries is leasing the building.

McDonnell said Goodwill opted to use the second story for a new program, which she called its “pioneer program,” with two training rooms and office space. Framing on the interior has been completed by Liber’s construction company, HSH Contractors.

Liber said the property was purchased in October. Interior work started at the first of the year, and he estimated the building renovation will be completed in three months.

The plans presented by McDonnell to the board include installing new storefront systems, a new swing entry door, a storefront entrance door, painting, cleaning and repointing existing brick facade and sandstone and new windows. Lighted signage on the building’s front was also approved.

The board nixed plans for new vinyl siding because it’s not allowed in the city’s historic district. 

Mayor Bobby Smith, a member of the board, said he toured Goodwill Industries’ Belmont Avenue location in Youngstown and found it “very impressive.”

According to Carol Holmes-Chambers, Goodwill Industries community solutions director, the downtown East Liverpool location will serve as one of the agency’s community hubs, working with its Assembly For Workforce Solutions program to provide retail opportunities and other services.

In addition to workforce training, Holmes-Chambers said expanded services will be offered by job development agencies.

“That is still under development with what the community thinks is needed,” she said. “It’s important to us to have a community voice.”

The plan is to have social service agencies addressing those needs in the office space on the second floor.

“Part is job training, and a huge part is giving people the support they need,” Holmes-Chambers said.

She said it is important to listen to the community’s voice in determining its needs, be it transportation, child care, behavioral health, stable housing, education, health care or others.

Other Goodwill agencies in Ohio and a few throughout the country have done this, including in Stark County, where Holmes-Chambers said 20-some co-organizations work together.

“We try to take things we see happen in other areas and incorporate it here and cater to our needs,” she said. 

The new center will have no bearing on the Goodwill retail store in Calcutta, which will remain open.

Pictured at top: This vacant East Liverpool building is being renovated as a Goodwill Industries retail store and training/resources center.