

Picture by J.D. Long – Goodwill is closing its doorways on Saturday due to the fact of low gains right after just five a long time inside of the Imperial Plaza.

BELLAIRE — With proprietors and administrators attributing selections to the COVID pandemic and population decrease, Bellaire is shedding two extra organizations.
Goodwill, found inside of the Imperial Plaza, is closing its doors Saturday, March 12, in accordance to Supervisor Callie Cox. She claimed the lease was for five yrs and no new deal is in the producing.
Cox reported the proprietor of the plaza provided to reduce the lease, but evidently that is not enough incentive to retain the doors open up. Cox wasn’t precisely guaranteed of all the reasons for the closure, but she speculated that income weren’t more than enough to maintain the enterprise and laid some blame on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a low-income place and persons stayed home,” she mentioned of the earlier 12 months or much more. “People were scared to occur out.”
Goodwill is giving workers the choice to transfer to other shops, but Cox isn’t guaranteed what she will do for now. She reported the workers learned just about four months ago that the retail outlet would be closing.
“I like Goodwill and what they do and depict,” Cox said. “I’m just glad that they’re allowing us to transfer.”
Questioned if COVID has damage the local community, Bellaire Mayor Ed Marling claimed he did not believe the affect was appreciable.
“I don’t think it genuinely hurt. … I feel, general, I do not assume it harm any one,” Marling explained.
He additional that there could be a couple extra enterprises coming in but declined to present any further more details at this time, together with how quickly that might be.
Yet another storefront going empty will be Leva’s Jewellery, which has occupied the outdated G.C. Murphy Co. wide variety shop on Belmont Street for the past 35 several years. Operator Matt Bartniski explained a 10% loss of populace for each year and COVID-19 served make up his head to close.
Those people components, and the truth that he’s 75 decades old, built him say that working six times a 7 days just is not in his plans any longer.
There is hope that the constructing won’t just sit as an empty shell, nevertheless, due to the fact he’s offered the house to individuals who have programs for it. He did not provide their names, but his four-tale, brick constructing full of history has been bought with strategies to create apartments. He stated he could not deliver any other information.
Bartniski claimed he’ll be in business enterprise there for about yet another four months. Right after that, he’ll only be keeping his other shop, Gold Diggers in New Martinsville.
Attempts to arrive at Goodwill’s Zanesville office environment for comment ended up unsuccessful.