White Elephant doubling in size

www.gvnews.com

Green Valley’s most popular pachyderm, the Country Fair White Elephant thrift store, is expanding. The three-phased building project will cost an estimated $1.75 million and will add more than 17,000-square-feet of shopping area just south of the thrift store’s current location, doubling the current square footage.

“Everything will be way more convenient,” general manager Karen Morales said. “This, of course, will all be paid for in-house. We’ve already had this money readily available for this project.”

The expanded store will also have public rest rooms on site, a first.

“It’s all about making the shoppers happy,” Morales added. “People can shop longer if they feel comfortable.”

The architect, Acorn Associates Architects out of Tucson, was the architect for the government complex.

Morales and Jim Fitzsimmons, facility manager and member of the newly formed Construction Committee, said the idea was launched about five years ago with the CFWE Long Range Planning Committee headed by Bob Freckmann.

The group looked at purchasing property outside the government complex, 601 N. La Canada Drive, where the White Elephant currently operates, but those plans fell through, Morales said.

“We have a lease agreement with the county for the current property and they have extended the lease agreement to include the expansion through 2022,” Morales said.

The store has operated at the current location since 1980, when the GVCF Board first leased a parcel of land from Pima County in the governmental complex for $1. Back then, a 3,000-square-foot building was erected on the site to serve as a year-round thrift shop as well as a storage center for donated goods.

Morales and Fitzsimmons agree that the expansion is a necessity due to the growth of the thrift store and the additional work area needed in receiving, sorting and pricing of goods.

“We’ve got people jammed into a small work space and we are trying to sort and price items for 26 different departments in that space,” Fitzsimmons said.

It was eventually decided by the Long Range Planning Committee and the CFWE Board of Directors to expand the thrift store at the current location after Pima County gave the White Elephant in April 2007 the “go head” to expand.

Fitzsimmons said the store is expanding in phases in order to cut the impact on shopping hours and customer inconvenience.

Phase I: Installing new county-owned gas pumps, now just south of the White Elephant, at a different location, creating a loop driveway back to the pumps. Getting the receiving area at the northeast side of the building functional. Time line: 10 to 12 weeks.

Phase II: Removing the old gas pumps and tanks. Building the new store. Time line: 15 to 16 weeks.

Phase III: Finish paving and remodeling current work area and sales floor for usable work space. Time line: 8 to 10 weeks.

Just the facts

Additional 17,000-plus square feet, doubling the store size.

Parking will be doubled, extending an additional 160 feet south along the west side of the new building. Parking rows will increase from three to four.

The front entrance of the new building will be on the west side so that shoppers can enter directly from the parking lot.

Builders: Triumph Builders SW LLC

Estimated cost, $1.75 million

Estimated date of completion of all three phases: Dec. 1

Ground-breaking ceremony Thursday, 9 a.m. south of White Elephant, 601 N. La Canada near the Government Complex