Mansfield Mission Center building for the future

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

After being spread out across three locations over 3 ½ miles, the Mansfield Mission Center plans to close the gap and consolidate all of its operations in one spot.

“The Mansfield Mission Center will be united in one location in the next year – the thrift store, the medical clinic, the market and the training center will be in one location,” said Brian McFadden, executive director of the 501(c)3 non-profit agency.

“The key is that it will better serve our neighbors,” McFadden said. “People go to the wrong address all the time.”

The mission center began as a thrift store for First Methodist Church, but kept growing in size and purpose. Currently, the center has three locations: the Linda Nix Clinic, 901 W. Broad St., which sees medical and dental patients; the Mansfield Mission Thrift Store, 703 E. Broad St., where residents donate and shop for re-sale items; and the Mansfield Mission Center community room, administrative offices and Food Market, 78 Regency Parkway, where people in the Mansfield ISD can go to shop for free food.

When the city traded City Hall for the Mansfield ISD Administration Building and the shopping center where the thrift store is located to the school district, the Mansfield Mission Center administration and board saw the writing on the wall and moved their administrative offices and market to Regency Parkway, sharing a building with the Arlington-Mansfield YMCA. They knew they would eventually have to move the thrift store, too, McFadden said.

“We went on a journey when we learned the city was not renewing our lease,” he said.

The hunt for rental space in Mansfield was discouraging, McFadden said.

“It’s so expensive,” he said. “It’s retail prices, not non-profit prices.”

So the board of directors looked at the property around the Linda Nix Clinic, which is adjacent to the HIM Food Bank, 150 S. 6th St.

“We own the land out at the clinic so let’s go ahead and build what we need,” McFadden said.

The solution was to build a 19,000-square-foot building next to the Linda Nix Medical Clinic on West Broad Street, he said. The mission center owns three acres, which will allow for room for the expansion, parking and room for people to pull up and drop off items for the market and thrift store.

“You won’t have to go to Regency Parkway to drop off food and to the thrift store to drop off items,” said Stacia Miller, director of development for the mission center.

If needed in the future, the thrift store can be moved out to expand the food market, training center and administrative offices, McFadden said.

Construction will cost $4 million and the non-profit plans to start a capital campaign to raise the funds in December, he said. Construction is expected to be completed in the next 12 months.

The building is needed and will make their work easier and more collaborative, McFadden said.

“If we get overwhelmed in the market, a couple of thrift store volunteers can pop over,” he said.

“I am extremely excited, not just for our team, mostly for our community,” McFadden said. “I want the community to feel like it’s theirs. Our mission statement says it all ‘Empowering people with essential resources and fostering their independence.’

“We are just the vehicle that’s used,” he said. “It’s not about us. It’s about helping people get unstuck.”

For more information about the Mansfield Mission Center, contact Stacia Miller at staciam@mansfieldmission.org.

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