The Mosaic Christian Community Development Association is settling into its new storefront in Benton Township after moving into the location this summer. You can now find their resale store at 1804 M-139 in Benton Harbor, right behind Henry’s Hamburgers. Mosaic CCDA CEO Andrew Robinson tells us they opened their first resale store in 2009.
“We first started off in 2009 in Fairplain. The founder and board president Brian Bennett actually opened up the store in Fairplain,” Robinson said. “It was kind of in the same area as Big Lots. Then we eventually moved. We moved to Main Street right there on Riverview Drive, and then about four or five years ago, just a little bit before I got here, moved to the Wall Street location.”
Last year, their old location started to get too small.
“I hired a new resale store manager back, I would say, probably around May of last year, and we didn’t assume that it was going to do extremely well just because it was at the height of the COVID pandemic, but we started to see sales that were amazing. They were sales numbers that we had never seen throughout our store’s history, and about maybe in October of last year, we had to literally stop taking donations.”
Robinson says an opportunity to buy the former ValueLand came up and with help from Honor Credit Union, Mosaic acquired the property. The 25,000 square foot building offers plenty of space for the resale store, offices, and even room for Jobs for Life and other programs. In their new location, Robinson says the non-profit Mosaic is thriving. Does he think Mosaic will run out of space again?
“Honestly, what is interesting is that we thought in that space, it was going to be large enough. We thought we were going to have plenty of space. We thought that we were going to have so much space that it may even look bare. But I would say a month in, we realized that we don’t have enough space,” Robinson said with a laugh. “A part of that is the support that we’ve received from the community has been amazing. We’re getting tons and tons of donations every single day. It even got to a point where we had to stop picking up donations because it just felt like we didn’t have enough space to put everything on the floor. And this is top quality stuff…This is some top-notch furniture, appliances, household accessories, and clothes that we’re getting as well.”
However, don’t expect Mosaic to go looking for another new location soon. Robinson says they have big plans for the new home.
“What our whole vision was for that space was much more than just a resale store. We really saw it as a community hub, as a community resource center so there are a number of organizations who can work out of there and be able to provide their services and programs out of there as well. We want to run the full gamut of services and programs that are all about the community.”
Honor Credit Union will operate an office in the new store, offering financial education to the community.
“The new space at Mosaic will allow the Summit to increase its presence in the community,” said Barbara Sistrunk, Executive Director of Summit Financial Wellness at Honor Credit Union. “This partnership gives us the opportunity to not only work with their Jobs for Life participants but enables us to offer financial education and coaching opportunities to a broader audience in a centralized area.”
“Andrew was a pleasure to work with throughout the process,” stated Brian Barber, Honor’s Director of Commercial Lending for Honor Credit Union. “We were happy to help him, and the Mosaic team make this much needed transition and look forward to seeing their positive impact in the community for years to come.”
Everyone’s invited to stop by and pay a visit to the new resale store. It’s open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, you can visit MosaicCCDA.com.
