ReStore in Springfield has more than doubled its space to show salvaged home-improvement items.

SPRINGFIELD - The recent expansion at a store specializing in recycled building materials will give organizers plenty of room to display items like the Jacuzzi tub that builder Robert T. Goyette Jr. just donated.

ReStore Home Improvement Center, which opened in 2001, recently expanded from about 3,500 to 8,500 square feet in its home behind Gasoline Alley Foundation, 250 Albany St.

QUITE AN IMPRESSIVE FACILITY Tammi J. McBath, marketing and outreach coordinator, and Jason M. Grooms, employee, lean on some of the items available at ReStore Home Improvement Center on Albany Street, Springfield.

A new outdoor display yard boosts the space that holds clawfoot tubs, doors, windows, cabinets, cabinet knobs and, yes, that Jacuzzi, to almost 10,000 square feet, according to Holly M. Milton-Benoit, store manager.

ReStore, a project of the non-profit Center for Ecological Technology, aims to prevent useable home-improvement materials from being discarded in landfills.

In May, ReStore received 53 donations, most from private homeowners.

Robert T. Goyette Jr., president of Heritage Homes Inc. in Westfield, said he often encourages his remodeling customers to donate old materials to ReStore.

Donations can range from "12- to 15-year-old Anderson windows in dynamite condition to vanities and light fixtures," Goyette said. "So the products vary, but it's really nice that they have a home."

Goyette said ReStore staff will pick up items, saving him a trip to the landfill or to his warehouse, where he's sometimes had a big tag sale of unwanted items at the end of a year.

"It saves us a significant amount of landfill costs, and saves landfill resources," Goyette said. Donors, including retailers and manufacturers who are clearing out inventory, can get a tax break, while customers can save 50 to 65 percent off the retail price.

Milton-Benoit said sales have gone from about $14,500 a month a year ago to about $22,000 a month now.

Potential profits are still going to expenses, including the expansion and renovation project, which included knocking down a concrete wall and installing a new door, she said.

ReStore occupied a small garage behind the Gasoline Alley building and had been storing excess inventory in the Gasoline Alley basement.

The basement has been reclaimed and renovated into retail space, with racks and a check-out counter donated by Staples, she said.

The new area houses kitchen cabinetry, shelving, shutters, flooring, paint and wallpaper and plumbing.

The original space offers windows and doors, columns and related accessories. The room behind it houses lighting and electrical fixtures, including chandeliers, wall sconces and table lamps.

Milton-Benoit said ReStore will reject donations that are not in good shape.

"The material we take in, we want it to be good, usable material, and we don't want to have to pay to dispose of it," she said.

ReStore is expanding a little from its primary role as a contemporary salvage store into "the architectural salvage world," she said. That's where the things such as columns come from.

At any one time, the store probably has "thousands" of items in stock, ranging from "really small items," such as bins full of cabinet hardware for 50 cents each, up to the Jacuzzi, which is listed at $1,250, according to Tammi J. McBath, marketing and outreach coordinator.

Goyette said ReStore is "clean, neat and, boy, with the expansion, quite an impressive facility."

ReStore employs four full-time, a full-timer from the AmeriCorps/VISTA program, and three part-timers.

The store is open weekdays, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. It is closed Sundays.

Marcia Blomberg can be reached at mblomberg@repub.com

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