The Center of Hope Thrift Store is slowly moving out of Jacksonville. A new location opened in Oxford on U.S. 78 on Aug. 30, but the church will keep workers at the Jacksonville store until all merchandise is gone from that location.The move is purely a financial one.
“I want everybody up there to know it had nothing to do with the mayor, council or the city,” said Center of Hope pastor Gary Burns. “They did everything they could to keep us in the building.”
Center of Hope’s sublet on the old Wal-Mart building on Pelham Road doesn’t end until the end of January 2009, but the group knew they would not be able to stay in the building after that.
Burns has repeatedly attempted to negotiate a lease or purchase deal with Equity Investments, the group managing the property, but was unable to reach an amount the church could pay.
While they were working on extending the lease, a property in Oxford came to their attention and the church has been working hard for the past few months to get it in shape and open for business.
To thank the customers in Jacksonville who have been good to them for the past year and a half, they reduced the price of the remaining goods at the Jacksonville store, hoping to clear it out soon.
That doesn’t mean they will be free of the town completely, though. The Center of Hope still plans to honor its lease with the city, which will last another five months and they hope to be able to help the city make the repairs needed before the city turns the building back over to Equity Investments.
“Our intention is to do our part to help,” said Burns. “We want to make sure we honor everything with the city of Jacksonville. They surely did their part.”
The city will be sad to see them go.
“They’ve been good tenants,” said Mayor Johnny Smith. “The building’s probably in better shape now than it was when they took it over.”
