Tower District thrift store wants to buy its building. Now it has $1.5M in state funds

Some of Anthony Armour’s best — and worst — decisions were made in Fresno’s Tower District.

“Right out there on Olive Avenue,” Armour said on Tuesday inside Neighborhood Thrift before a crowd of city and state leaders and media.

The anecdote is proof of his belief in, and commitment to, the community where he started the thrift store in 2008, during the height of the recession.

It has since grown into a social equity enterprise of workforce development and community enrichment under the Neighborhood Industries umbrella. Along with the thrift store, there’s the Blkmktplc vintage boutique and an electronic and textile recycling operation.

The nonprofit announced the launch of a $2.5 million capital campaign to buy and renovate its headquarters near the intersection of Olive and Palm avenues. Nearly 2 million will be used to purchase the building itself, with the remaining dollars used for improvements like a new roof and floors, an updated facade and upgraded parking lot and donation center. The company will also build a learning center with a dedicated space for its case managers.

“We’re not just hopeful treasure seekers looking to find cool used T-shirts,” Armour said.

“It would take a lot of used T-shirts to accumulate that many zeros.”

The campaign got a $1.5 million jump start from state Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, who grew up in the Tower District neighborhood and requested the money as part of California’s 2022-23 budget.

“This is a diamond in the rough for a community like ours, where those who have hit rock bottom have an opportunity to uplift themselves, to get themselves back to work, to get themselves on the right path by working with those who have walked the path themselves,” Arambula said.

That kind of support comes from years of Neighborhood Industries proving the social enterprise model in the community.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias recalled a recent meeting with the Catholic Diocese, which was touting its thrift shop as innovative.

“I said, ‘I am familiar with the model ... Neighborhood Industries has been doing this for a decade,’” Arias said.

The campaign is crucial in helping to preserve and rebuild the Tower District neighborhood, he said; investments in peopele are as important as investments in infrastructure and culture touchstones, like the Tower Theatre.

“We have to rebuild the lives of those in our city,” Arias said, which Neighborhood Industries does as a full-time job.

For the city’s part, Councilmember Esmeralda Soria called on Mayor Jerry Dyer to work with the city council to secure money to help with facility improvements. The mayor promised that would happen.