Remodeling shines a new light on St. Vincent de Paul store

The difference isnt as stark as night and day, but for the people shopping at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store, the newly remodeled back of the store almost glows when compared with the darker front section.

Everything looks great you can see much better than before and its so much nicer, said Carmen Ortz, who was shopping there for clothes last week. Its like its brand new.

Her reaction has been the norm among longtime customers, said Dan Torrington, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the Tucson Dioceses.

You would have thought that we had moved the Taj Mahal, he said. It was nice to have customers come in and say that. We never closed, so they put up with us during the construction part of it.

Since November, the nonprofit has invested more than $100,000 to remodel the sales floor of the thrift shop, located at 820 South Sixth Ave. The changes in the back half of the store include 10 skylights, new bathrooms, an expanded book area and wall-mounted air-conditioner units.

The thrift shops main building a car dealership during the 50s is about 8,000 square feet. The sales floor is divided between the old car showroom and the service area.

So far most of the major changes to the thrift store have been to the showroom half, including removal of an executive office that used to jut out into the center of the room and take up space.

But the renovations have also gone beyond the areas the public generally sees. Across the street, the St. Vincent de Paul administrative offices are also being upgraded as part of Torringtons plan to improve building conditions.

When I became the president I said we have to change. We cant be living out of a place that has all the wires hanging on the wall, and were not going to attract any young people to come in and become part of our organization, he said.

That philosophy extends to making customers have a better shopping experience.

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Remodeling shines a new light on St. Vincent de Paul store