Tulare Business Activity
By Julie Fernandez
Tulare
- Tulare residents will see the opening or relocating of several businesses
in town over the next two months, including the debut of the community's
first Goodwill store and of J.D. Heiskell's new corporate office.
Goodwill Industries of South Central California already has hired 10 people to work at its donation center and store on East Tulare Avenue and soon may need two more employees, said Ken Beurmann, vice president of business development for the nonprofit.
The donation center already is in operation at the 4,800-square-foot former Polaris building at 1821 East Tulare Ave., but the store is not expected to open until Thursday, Sept. 8, when a grand opening celebration and Tulare Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting are expected to start at 9: 30 a.m.
“We're inviting the mayor, City Council and state representatives,” said Beurmann, who reported the store would open to the buying public at 10 a.m. that day. Regular store hours will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. The donation drop-off center, situated in the rear of the same building, will open an hour earlier each day.
The Bakersfield-based Good Will Industries of South Central California operates in Kern and Kings counties and the southern half of Tulare County and recently opened a store in Porterville. Plans call for the operation to open stores in Hanford and Lemoore next. (The Visalia Goodwill store is operated by a Stockton-based franchise, said Beurmann.)
Goodwill accepts gently used clothing and household items, which are sold to the public. Proceeds are used to hire employees with barriers to employment such as physical or mental disabilities, a lack of job experience or a criminal background, Beurmann said, adding the stores also work with people the courts have assigned to do community service and with volunteers.
It was important for Goodwill to open in Tulare and Porterville because of the county's high unemployment rate, he said.
“Right now it's hard for even someone with a great resume to get a job,” he said.
Goodwill initially had planned to locate in a much larger space in the former Mervyn's building in the Tulare Pavilion Shopping Center, but Beurmann said the company began looking for another location after six months because Kmart, the anchor tenant in the center, failed to sign off on an agreement to allow the nonprofit to locate there.
“That unfortunately is something we can't really control,” he said.
(Shane Anderson of Commercial Retail Associates, which is handling leases for the center, said Kmart officials had planned to approve the agreement.)
While initially disappointed, Beurmann said he was happy with the East Tulare Avenue location because it is a free-standing building and it would be easier for people to drop off donated items.
Goodwill needs to collect as many household and clothing items as possible to get the Tulare store up and running, he said, reminding the public that donations are tax deductible and will stay in the community.
J.D.Heiskell & Co.
J.D. Heiskell & Co., which is celebrating 125 years in business, has moved its corporate office to a brand-new, 6,144-square-foot building in the Blackstone Ranch Professional Office development on Hillman Street at Covina.
In addition to its management team, the new office is also home to Heiskell's information technology and human resources departments, which formerly were housed at the company's main office at 116 West Cedar Ave.
About 10 people work out of the corporate office and there is room for more, said Adrianne Martella, the company's communications director.
Construction of a new headquarters was prompted by the formation of Golden State Feed and Grain, a joint venture between Land O'Lakes Purina Feed and J.D. Heiskell.
In addition to offices, Heiskell's new home also includes The Hillman Learning Center, named in honor of Dale and Patricia Hillman, whose home is near the site.
Dale Hillman was president of the company from 1970 to 1991 and is now chairman emeritus of the board. The Hillmans' son Scot is the current board chairman.
Patricia Hillman is the granddaughter of the company's founder, Jefferson Davis Heiskell, and daughter of John Tyler Heiskell, who ran the company from 1926 to 1970.
An open house is scheduled for Oct. 8, but the time is yet to be determined.
J.D. Heiskell & Co. is a privately held, professionally managed grain and commodity trading and livestock feed manufacturing enterprise with locations in eight states in the West. The company trades grain and commodities throughout the West and into Mexico and the Pacific Rim.
The above story is the property
of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit
permission in writing from the publisher.