CORRECTION: Goodwill Industries of Inland Northwest's Supportive Services for Veteran Families program will have up to 60 staff members once it completes its hiring process. The Journal reported that information incorrectly in its Jan. 13 issue. 

Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest has signed a lease to occupy the former Rockwood Physical Therapy building, at 505 E. Third, on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and Sherman Street.

Heather Alexander, senior associate vice president of marketing and communications for Goodwill, says the 11,800-square-foot building will house a portion of Goodwill’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families program staff, with additional staff available to help veterans navigate health care, legal services, and housing support services.

Once in the new building, Goodwill will have operations in four buildings on four city blocks along east Third Avenue, just east of downtown Spokane. 

In 2013, the first year Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest received funding for its veteran-support program, it had 10 to 15 employees dedicated to that program. Currently, the program has 20 to 30 employees, with plans to hire dozens more, Alexander says.

As of this year, Goodwill's funding for Veterans Families is $4.4 million, and it will have up to 60 staff members, Alexander says.

“It says that we’ve been doing a good job of getting people housed and serving them well. Otherwise, that funding wouldn’t continue," she says. 

She says the former physical therapy building is conveniently located for Goodwill and the people the organization serves and employs.

Alexander adds, “The most important thing is it’s fairly close to our East Third Avenue offices and directly behind the Health Care for Homeless Veterans offices.”

Alexander says Goodwill’s Veteran Families program staff works closely with employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Health Care for Homeless Veterans, located at 504 E. Second. She adds that the close proximity of the two offices—located across an alley from one another—will benefit participants and ease the coordination of their care.

Goodwill expects to occupy the building in the early spring, she says.

Spokane County Assessor’s office records show Spokane-based Empire Investments LLC owns the site.

Alexander says Cory Barbieri, of Spokane commercial real estate brokerage Goodale & Barbieri, represented the landlord in the lease transaction. She says light remodeling work will be needed before Goodwill occupies the space and will be performed by the building’s landlord.

The site will be Goodwill’s ninth Spokane-area location, including its newly acquired property on the West Plains, where the nonprofit plans to build a 60,000-square-foot retail store and salvage processing area.

“We’re always looking for opportunities to make things a better service experience for the people we serve,” Alexander says.

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