Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest will open a new thrift store in northwest Spokane and will move its Post Falls store to a $3 million facility to be constructed there, says Clark Brekke, president of the Spokane-based nonprofit.

In all, Goodwill likely will hire 37 employees combined at the two facilities.

About 25 of those employees will staff the new Spokane store, which is scheduled to open in October or November in a portion of a long-vacant Albertsons grocery store building, located at 1617 W. Northwest Blvd., Brekke says.

Goodwill will occupy 20,000 square feet of space, which is roughly half of the total floor space in the former supermarket structure.

Boise-based Albertsons LLC closed the Northwest Boulevard store five years ago this month, citing declining profitability at that location. The site lies in the center of the Ash and Maple streets couplet, across Northwest Boulevard from a still-operating Safeway supermarket.

Commercial real estate broker Chris Bell, of Spokane-based NAI Black, negotiated Goodwill’s lease.

Brekke says Goodwill will divide its space roughly evenly between retail and production operations.

“Each new store we build or lease will have production facilities in half of the space,” he says.

Production operations include cleaning, grading, and pricing donated items to be put on the retail floor. Production also includes processing items shipped from stand-alone donation stations, Brekke says.

The Northwest Boulevard store also will have a drive-thru drop-off station that will be converted from the former Albertson’s pharmacy drive-thru.

Donations of items to Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest so far this year are up in the double-digit percentage range compared with last year, and same store revenue is up 5 percent over last year, Brekke claims.

“It makes sense to open additional outlets in key areas,” he says. “We use modeling software, so we know where to locate new stores.”

Brekke says Planet Fitness, an exercise gym, will occupy the other half of the former Albertsons building.

Planet Fitness Inc., the Newington, N.H.-based chain of membership workout facilities, also operates a gym at 13112 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley. A manager there couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

In Post Falls, Goodwill broke ground last week on a new 24,000-square-foot facility at the southeast corner of state Route 41 and 16th Avenue.

The facility will replace a smaller retail store that currently is located at 317 E. Seltice Way and has 12 employees.

“We’ll be adding 10 to 13 additional employees,” Brekke says, adding, “New workforce and family services offices will be attached to the Post Falls facility, so we can provide services to the community.”

The current Post Falls facility doesn’t have workforce and family services offices.

Baker Construction & Development Inc., of Spokane, is the contractor on the Post Falls project, and Wolfe Architectural Group PS, also of Spokane, designed it. The project is scheduled to be completed early next year.

Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest is an independent, nonprofit agency of Rockville Md.-based Goodwill Industries International.

The Spokane organization operates 12 retail stores with donation facilities, one outlet store, and 16 stand-alone donation stations.

Goodwill employs more than 500 people regionwide. Revenue from the stores fund Goodwill’s programs for people with employment challenges. Goodwill’s programs here serve more than 6,000 people in 23 counties annually.