The Salvation Army purchased the former Kiwanis thrift store at 15 Homestead Road S. in Lehigh Acres for $1.49 million. The 11,144-square-foot building will help the organization expand its services in Lehigh Acres.
Salvation Army
Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres was winding down its mission of helping others, preparing to disband while extending its legacy. The Salvation Army of Fort Myers had been looking for ways to expand its mission.
The two nonprofits then connected and helped each other.
On Aug. 7, the Salvation Army paid $1.49 million to Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres for an 11,144-square-foot warehouse on 1.88 acres at 15 Homestead Road S. in Lehigh Acres.
Stan Stouder of CRE Commercial Group brokered the deal on behalf of the Salvation Army. Fred Elliott, broker/owner of Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties, represented Kiwanis.
For more than four decades, the Kiwanis Club had run a thrift store out of the warehouse, with proceeds going toward its nonprofit organization, the Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres Foundation. The thrift store closed for good July 31.
With Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres on the verge of folding because of depleted membership and its leaders looking to step back, the club began looking for a way to pay forward its legacy, said Damon Shelor, a retired horticulturist and president of the club, which was founded in 1968.
According to the foundation’s most recent IRS filing, it reported $353,027 in revenue but $402,380 in expenses last year, a deficit of about $49,000.
The proceeds from the real estate sale will be donated to Collaboratory, with some of the funds earmarked for the club’s legacy scholarship program, Shelor said.
“Kiwanis is an international organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world, one child at a time,” Shelor said of the club’s mission statement. “Florida has been a strong state for Kiwanis clubs.”
An aerial map highlights the 1.88-acre property at 15 Homestead Road S. in Lehigh Acres purchased by the Salvation Army for $1.49 million. The site includes an 11,144-square-foot building formerly used as the Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres thrift store.
Lee County Property Appraiser
But in recent years, membership has fallen from 15,000 to 5,000 members across Florida, Shelor said. As members died or retired, the younger generation just didn’t step forward to fill their voids, Shelor said.
“Membership — times have changed,” said Shelor, who told the board four years ago that it had two years to replace him. But he stayed on until the end. “Life is different now. Clubs such as ours are having difficulty getting members. Members with free time to donate to go out and do things. It gets harder. We saw a lack of leadership, and people were aging out.
“What it boiled down to, our membership had dwindled. I’m the second- or third-youngest of our group at 72. Without a younger generation to take the reins, we made the decision that we needed to sell.”
Kiwanis had a few offers, but it didn’t just want to sell to anyone.
“We wanted to continue our legacy of service to the community,” Shelor said. “We wanted the property here to continue to be an asset to the community — mainly because all the profits went back into the community.”
Enter the Salvation Army.
Salvation Army Maj. Ethan Frizzell and his team are awaiting permits to build out the organization’s campus in Fort Myers. But the Salvation Army is also looking to better serve Clewiston, LaBelle and Lehigh Acres — and will be better able to do so with the new building, Frizzell said.
“We recognized with the population growth in Lehigh, we needed to provide services in Lehigh like we do in Fort Myers,” Frizzell said.
The Salvation Army’s stated mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination. It does so in part by helping to provide food and clothing for those in need.
The Salvation Army paid for the warehouse while waiting for funding from Lee County through its Community Development Block Grant program with the federal government related to Hurricane Ian recovery. It is also awaiting the building’s conversion from septic to sewer.
“There’s a significant amount of faith that is required in faith-based organizations,” Frizzell said of buying the building before having the government-assisted funding in hand. “We have a lot of history and a strong relationship with the county. We’re confident that this will help the neighbors in Lehigh — to make sure they have quality services. There’s an increasing number of families at risk.”