Goodwill likely coming to Roosevelt Road in Lombard

The Lombard village board has given Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin preliminary approval to build a resale store, donation center and job training facility on Roosevelt Road.

Goodwill plans to build a 25,000 square-foot store at 321-395 E. Roosevelt Road that will include about 18,000 square feet for resale of clothing and other items as well as a drive-through lane for people to drop off donations. The rest of the building would house a Goodwill TalentBridge Workforce Connection center.

“The area will be free and open to the public and it helps underemployed and unemployed people find jobs,” said Joan Farrell, vice president and general counsel of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, which also covers the Chicago area.

She said the workforce connection center will provide access to computers and fax machines, and training in resume writing and interviewing skills to Goodwill shoppers, who often are looking for jobs, or anyone else seeking employment assistance.

Goodwill hopes to open the store and workforce center in early fall, Farrell said, pending final approval from the village board, which is likely to come at its Feb. 16 meeting.

If it’s approved, the location would be the seventh in the Southeastern Wisconsin region to offer job training and resale goods at the same site, Farrell said.

In addition to the main building, a one-acre area will be developed as either a sit-down restaurant or a fast-food restaurant with a drive-through, but Goodwill has not yet identified a user for the secondary building, according to Lombard plan commission documents.

Site plans gained preliminary approval in two stages. First, the village board OK’d a zoning amendment allowing resale stores at least 5,000 square feet to be located in the Roosevelt Road corridor district.

Then, the details of Goodwill’s plan were considered under an annexation agreement. The property, which formerly housed a bowling alley, was annexed into Lombard in 2007, but plans to develop it fell through because of economic conditions, said Bill Heniff, community development director.

Goodwill now has the property under contract, but because its plans differ from those on the original annexation agreement, the agreement needs to be amended before the company officially gets the green light.

Heniff said the project fits in well with the village’s desired uses for Roosevelt Road properties because it will be of “high quality design,” incorporating environmentally friendly features such as LED lighting and permeable pavement.