Former PTA Thrift Shop puts Carrboro property up for sale. What’s next for the nonprofit?

Tammy Grubb
·5 min read

A 71-year-old thrift shop is on the market in downtown Carrboro, but the nonprofit that runs it has plans to lease storefront and community space back from the new owners.

Kevin Hicks, chairman of the CommunityWorx board of directors, confirmed the potential sale in an interview Tuesday with The News & Observer. Selling the property will keep the nonprofit thrift store and the YouthWorx on Main facility next door in business, he said.

“The plan is to sell it to an investor that is tied to the community, that is also tied to the mission of CommunityWorx, and would therefore lease it back to us so that we can continue operations and continue to employ up to 40 people in the community,” Hicks said.

What has the store meant in the community?

CommunityWorx started in 1952 as the PTA Thrift Shop, selling second-hand goods to support the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

▪ Local PTAs received about $265,000 in 2011, the last big distribution before the PTA Thrift Shop launched an ambitious expansion project that later caused a rift with the PTAs and forced the nonprofit organization to change its name.

▪ The following years were lean as PTA Thrift Shop and then CommunityWorx struggled to pay a 20-year, $5.5 million mortgage, according to federal tax returns.

The CommunityWorx building on West Main Street in Carrboro and an office building next door have been put on sale for $4.7 million. The nonprofit thrift shop plans to lease its space from the building’s new owners.
The CommunityWorx building on West Main Street in Carrboro and an office building next door have been put on sale for $4.7 million. The nonprofit thrift shop plans to lease its space from the building’s new owners.

▪ The expansion replaced the original two-story structure at 125 W. Main St. with a three-story building that housed the thrift store, gave it space for operations, and added offices upstairs. A one-story building next door was added with co-working space for youth-focused nonprofit groups.

Why are they selling the buildings now?

▪ Both buildings — totaling over 26,000 square feet on 1.7 acres — are now for sale, with an asking price of $4.7 million, according to online marketing materials.

▪ Tax returns show CommunityWorx still owed $4.3 million on its mortgage as of June 30, 2022.

▪ The sale will allow CommunityWorx to break even and continue operating, Hicks said. The new owner could lease the 7,330-square-foot, second-floor office space to another tenant.

What they’re saying: “We’re not really looking for a profit. We’re just looking to stay solvent,” said Hicks, whose nonprofit group Triangle Bikeworks was one of the first tenants to lease space in YouthWorx on Main.

CommunityWorx President and Chief Executive Officer Barbara Jessie-Black declined to comment further about the plans.

Changes brought tension with supporters

The building campaign was expected to boost money going to local school needs, and in 2011, then-PTA Thrift Shop executive director Barbara Jessie-Black told the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board that allocations to local schools could grow by 44% within five years — to $400,000 or more.

In 2012, when the building plans were approved, she suggested the space now housing YouthWorx could be leased to a business, such as a restaurant, generating even more money for the thrift shop’s mission.

What happened next: Instead, local schools received just over $166,000 in disbursements and Project Impact grants between 2012 and 2019, according to previous reports. The nonprofit’s website does not show any grants since 2019. Hicks said he wasn’t sure if any had been awarded.

Jessie-Black, now CommunityWorx president and CEO, noted the lingering effects of the 2008 recession on the thrift shop’s bottom line, combined with its mortgage, when asked in 2016 about the tension with parents, PTA officials and residents who questioned the nonprofit’s direction, including its revised bylaws and decisions that reduced PTA input and the use of volunteers.

Some of the thrift shop’s one-time supporters called for a boycott to protest the lack of funding and details. Others encouraged donors to take their second-hand goods to a different PTA Thrift Shop in Chatham County.

YouthWorx on Main, at 117 W. Main St. in Carrboro, features large and small conference rooms, a commons area and kitchen.
YouthWorx on Main, at 117 W. Main St. in Carrboro, features large and small conference rooms, a commons area and kitchen.

The PTA Thrift Shop ended up refinancing its mortgage, taking out a separate $250,000 loan to cover unexpected costs, and recording its first loss in decades, according to nonprofit officials and tax returns.

Why did the organization change its name?

The rift with local PTAs widened, leading to a lawsuit over the word “PTA” in the thrift shop’s name. The name was changed as part of a 2019 settlement with the North Carolina PTA and the National PTA.

Jessie-Black denied at the time seeing a financial impact of the community’s reaction to the thrift shop changes. Changing the name would return the conversation to “who we are now as a community,” she said, adding the nonprofit’s relationship with the schools and its mission had not changed.

The PTA Thrift Shop’s YouthWorx on Main building offers low-rent space to nonprofit groups working with local youths. The goal is to use the collective power of those nonprofits to secure grants that will pay for YouthWorx and funnel the building’s revenues back into the PTA Thrift Shop, executive director Barbara Jessie-Black said.
The PTA Thrift Shop’s YouthWorx on Main building offers low-rent space to nonprofit groups working with local youths. The goal is to use the collective power of those nonprofits to secure grants that will pay for YouthWorx and funnel the building’s revenues back into the PTA Thrift Shop, executive director Barbara Jessie-Black said.

Nonprofit reports profitable year

By June 2020 — three months into the pandemic that shut down its operations — the thrift shop’s mortgage had grown to nearly $4.7 million and CommunityWorx was reporting a $399,940 loss, tax returns show. In November 2020, the thrift shop closed its storefront on South Elliott Road, leaving only the original location in Carrboro.

“COVID did really upset the balance, when people were staying home, like (with) most businesses,” Hicks said. “We were lucky not to close, but that put a dent in the revenues.”

The organization marked a financial turnaround in June 2022 when the latest available tax returns showed it earning $345,445 between July 2021 and June 2022 — its first profit in seven years. YouthWorx posted a loss of $66,390 that year, returns showed.

However, the co-working space remains a “great incubator for nonprofits” and “vital part” of the work that CommunityWorx does, Hicks said, in addition to diverting still usable goods from the landfill and providing vouchers that groups such as the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service and Compass Center can give to students, individuals and families in need.