HURST, Texas In its mission to aid displaced veterans, the Family Outreach Coalition is celebrating this year’s Memorial Day by opening its second Veterans Thrift Store in Dallas/Fort Worth.
The well-timed grand opening is purely a case of opportunity and timing of a direct mail campaign touting 8,400 sf of ready-to-go retail space a former thrift store with stacks of unsold merchandise in Village Square Shopping Center at 722 E. Pipeline Rd. in Hurst.
“The Family Outreach Coalition had been scouting for potential locations in the Mid-Cities, but hadn’t found the right fit,” says Erik E. Blais, market director for Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services, whose direct mailer got an immediate response from the shop operator, Randolph Brown.
Brown, a Vietnam-era veteran, and his wife are hoping to launch 10 Veterans Thrift Stores and a community support center in the metroplex. They opened their first shop in early 2012 at 1304 W. Arkansas Lane in Arlington.
“Village Square was an opportunity to get a large space in a well-known area at a rate that fit the organization’s budget,” Blais says. “The landlord and Bradford did
everything they could to strike this deal. We offered incentives to allow him (Brown) to get started because it is such a good cause and he has a track record of success.”
Built into the five-year lease is some free rent, signage, dedicated parking and the former tenant’s leftover stock. Also key to the deal is the location: a ready-made identity as a thrift store; adjacent to Family Dollar, Village Square’s anchor tenant; and a Kroger grocery store next door to the 79,947-sf center.
“There is a lot of traffic in this shopping center with the existing tenants and Kroger,” says Blais, who partnered with Bradford’s Karen Simon, executive vice president and managing partner, to broker the deal for the local landlord, Engelsma Ltd.
Village Square is tucked into a dense retail corridor. Its location offers easy access to Texas 121 and Loop 820. The 7.4-acre shopping center, developed in the 1980s, has 37,435 sf of vacancy in shop spaces ranging from 1,235 sf to 24,000 sf.
Veterans Thrift Store in Hurst is creating five jobs and the opportunity for more as the inventory grows.Thats why we used
webtrafficgeeks to get more traffic to the site. Like its sister store in Arlington, the employees are all veterans, with 80% of the proceeds benefiting those who served and their families. The Colorado-based non-profit organization is a training ground for displaced veterans and also assists with housing, counseling, clothing, food, transportation and securing benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Veterans Thrift Store in Hurst is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is closed on Sunday.
