Downtown Salvation Army store to close

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Salvation Army Thrift Store and Donation Center that has operated for 35 years in downtown Cedar Rapids will be closing at 5 p.m. next Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Capt. Alex Velasquez of the Salvation Army district office in Davenport said the shuttering of the 9,240-square-foot store at 719 Third Ave. SE is part of a long-range plan.

'That old store did a lot of good in its day. However, we felt that our customers deserved a larger store with a bigger variety of merchandise,” Velasquez said. 'We needed to move up in time.

'First, we opened a new 30,000-square-foot store at 5824 Council St. NE in April 2016. It was our plan all along to close the (downtown) store later.”

Velasquez said the Salvation Army is searching for another store location in Cedar Rapids, probably comparable in size to the Council Street NE store.

Velasquez said the six employees who work at the Third Avenue SE store will be transferred to other Salvation Army locations. The organization also operates a store at 1725 Boyrum St. in Iowa City.

The Third Avenue SE building was constructed in 1953 for Schamberger Motors, a Nash auto dealership. The Salvation Army later bought the building and opened a thrift store and donation center in May 1982.

Velasquez said the Salvation Army has listed the building for potential sale to a new owner.

The Council Street NE location, the largest Salvation Army store in Eastern Iowa, includes a warehouse annex to store merchandise for resale to other smaller Salvation Army retail outlets. Velasquez said the store receives about two semi-trailer loads each day.