Council finalizing agreement for new Goodwill retail store

Sheffield Lake City Council will seek to approve legislation to enter into a lease agreement with Goodwill Industries of Lorain County Inc. in the coming weeks.

The new retail location at the Shoreway Shopping Center at 4136 Lake Road will take over the former home of Dollar General.

“We are still waiting to hear back from the board of directors for Goodwill. They did have a meeting and we anticipate having this all set very soon,” said Law Director David Graves.

Mayor Dennis Bring said the city is currently waiting on Goodwill’s board to grant final approval of the proposal before moving forward on an estimated $300,000 in renovations to the city-owned property.

The proposed lease will be a seven-year agreement at $5,900 per month. Graves added the lease will be structured in a manner which will allow the city to recoup its investment in the building over the first term of the agreement. Bring reported to council on April 25 the new proposed retail store will include a small portion of the adjoining storefront.

The project has been in development for the past two years following initial discussions for Goodwill to move in to the location of the former bowling alley at Shoreway before the Dollar

General location became available, Bring said.

“We’ve been working on it for a long time and as soon as they say it’s OK then we are going to move forward with the city council and hopefully they’ll vote on it and then we will get the approval for the lowest bid,” Bring said.

Bring said after the two sides finalize the agreement and construction work is sent out to bid, the build out for the project will take about four months for completion.

According to its website, the Lorain County wing of Goodwill presently employs more than 120 people with seven retail locations in the area. In addition to retail sales, the organization provides employment training for people with disabilities, ex-offenders and long-term unemployed in addition to providing low-cost transportation services for elderly and disabled persons.

In other council business, Bring provided road construction updates for ongoing projects on Lake Breeze Road and Roberts Street.

Bring said Lake Breeze Road, which is in the process of repaving following a water main replacement, will be ground down on Sept. 28 or 29 with curb repair to begin shortly after.

The mayor added the city is awaiting the arrival of equipment to complete work on Roberts Street which added improved storm drainage pipes over the summer.