Goodwill Shop, Donation Center Seen for Clocktower Building in The Village

A Goodwill Industries retail store and donation center in the Creative Clocktower building isn’t a certainty, but if escrow closes as expected, The Village will have a good neighbor, says a San Diego spokeswoman for the charity.

Sharon Corrigan, the local operation’s director of communications, said Thursday that the presence of Beth Forsberg, the group’s operations chief, at a PBID meeting Wednesday night was part of the charity’s effort to be “a part of [the] community … [and] know what’s going on”—checking out the area “just like any diligent buyer.”

“We don’t have any ulterior motives,” Corrigan said. “We’re good neighbors. A lot of people will be surprised and delighted.”

She stressed that Goodwill Industries—which operates 15 shops in the county targeting women 18-54—is not a social service agency. 

“We’re all about creating jobs,” she said. “We’re a job training organization” with some 813 employees in the county. “It’s really quite amazing. Donated goods [are] like gold to us.”

Goodwill operates a dropoff point at the east end of the Amaya Trolley Station in La Mesa, and that won’t change—or its focus on spiffy appearance.

“We are so appreciated at the trolley station,” she said. “We keep that whole trolley area clean. We get compliments all the time.”

The choice of La Mesa—and The Village property at Spring Street and La Mesa Boulevard—was part of Goodwill’s strategy of “filling gaps” in the county where Goodwill stores are needed.  The closest ones to La Mesa are a on Mission Gorge Road in Santee and stores in Rancho San Diego and at I-805 and Home Avenue in east San Diego.

Managers work at all sites, so The Village operation would include them, too, Corrigan said from the local headquarters in Point Loma near the Sports Arena.

But she said: “Right now, it's all up in the air [in La Mesa] until escrow closes.”

Corrigan suggested a familiarity with the downtown Village, saying, “I know that area. … I know what that part of La Mesa is all about—the old Classic Car thing and Oktoberfest.”

Although the local operation is a nonprofit charity—which opened in San Diego in 1930—Goodwill Industries “don’t do the traditional fundraising thing,” she said.

According to its IRS tax filing for 2009, called a Form 990 (attached), Goodwill Industries of San Diego County had total revenues of just under $23 million and expenses of about $22.4 million. It paid its officers and key employees $697,284, but salaries and benefits for the workers it employs totaled $14.2 million.

Michael Rowan, the local Goodwill Industries CEO, was paid $302,449, and Forsberg, who visited the downtown business-improvement district committee meeting Wednesday, was paid $112,732 in 2009, according to tax records.

In a comment posted on the original story of the clocktower building sale, Corrigan addressed concerns about Goodwill’s clientele:

We invite everyone to visit any of our retail stores and donation centers nearby in Santee or Rancho San Diego to see how clean and friendly we are. We have been accepting donations from La Mesa residents at the Amaya and 70th Street trolley station for years, and our presence there has provided light security 7 days a week to keep an eye on the cars that use that facility. We are also very diligent about keeping the entire site clean and tidy when we arrive every morning and during the day.

She concluded: “We are very excited at this chance to become an even greater, and more positive presence, and to create jobs in La Mesa through this new facility.”