Salvation Army building new thrift shop

The Salvation Army Thrift Store, absent from Carson City since an August 1996 fire, will fill a 8,000-square-foot store in the Crossroads Center shopping center on East Winnie Lane.

Salvation Army Capt. Steve Arnold said Tuesday he does not know when the store will open, since construction was delayed by city requirements for additional landscaping. The frame of the building will be completed this week.

Arnold said Carson City shoppers will see a different type of merchandise than when it was open last.

"This will be a thrift store - what we had before was a junk shop," Arnold said.

The old store relied on donations for its stock which may have affected prospective landlords' attitudes, he said. Lt. John Van Cleef of the Carson City Salvation Army Church told the Nevada Appeal shortly after the fire that some property owners did not want a thrift store as a tenant. He said then that the charitable organization would build a store here if it had to.

"I've been trying for a long time to find them a new store, looking for about 10,000 square feet of space," Reno Realtor Ron Boles said. "Finally I found this property owner who is building the store for them."

The landlord will be McKenzie Properties of Reno, while McKenzie Construction of Reno is building the store.

Plans filed with the Carson City Community Development Department show the initial size of the store at 8,000 square feet, with a 2,000-square-foot future expansion possible.

The store will actually be operated by the Reno Salvation Army, which runs three thrift stores as well as a senior residence and a social services office.

Some proceeds from the Carson City store will support the activities of the Carson City Salvation Army Church, according to Lisa Van Cleef, who co-pastors the local church with her husband. The thrift store proceeds provide a major funding for the Carson social services office as well at the Reno Adult Rehabilitation Program, which serves all of Northern Nevada.

When the Carson City store closed, four employees were transferred to the army's Reno stores to work.

Jason Arnold, the son of Capt. Arnold, is slated to run the Carson City store once it opens.

The Salvation Army's lease at its old location at 210 N. Carson St. was to expire in September 1996, but smoke from a small fire in August ruined all the charity's merchandise and caused smoke damage to the building. The fire apparently started when an electrical appliance shorted out and its sparks touched off nearby racks of clothing.