By Stephanie Rebman  –  Managing Editor, Birmingham Business Journal

Birmingham-based Alabama Goodwill Industries is continuing its expansion throughout the state.

The nonprofit is currently focused on growing in Tuscaloosa before it opens three more donation centers and three new stores in Birmingham, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa later this year.

In Tuscaloosa, it recently opened its 2,000-square-foot Rice Mine Attended Donation Center and is currently gearing up to start construction on a store along Veterans Memorial Parkway. David Wells, president and CEO of Alabama Goodwill, said construction will begin on the 23,386-square-foot retail store that also includes drop-off capabilities early this year. The nonprofit invested $1.2 on the Rice Mine facility and $2.2 million on the store.

Those investments come on the heels of wrapping up a $1.8 million renovation of its Green Springs facility in Birmingham in 2020 and opening nine Attended Donation Centers in the past year as well as two new stores.

Those investments are also yielding jobs for the state. Wells said 25 new jobs arrived with the Green Springs renovation, five at the drop-off facility in Tuscaloosa and another 35 at the new store on Veterans Memorial Parkway.

“We at Alabama Goodwill plan to create 500 new jobs over the next three to five years for our fellow community members in northern and central Alabama who have employment barriers and have been impacted by the pandemic,” Wells said. “These jobs are needed now more than ever.”

Alabama Goodwill Industries has worked with a variety of contractors on its projects, including Line Scale Form, Brasfield & Gorrie, LED Solutions, LBYD, Structural Design Group, Engineering Design Technologies, Consulting Construction Engineering, Macknally Land Design, Amason & Associates, Gonzalez-Strength & Associates, MBA Engineers and Hansen L/A.