SCI In The News


	Varied Treasures The Old, the Odd and Other Stuff Worth Saving By Jonathan M. Block Special to The Washington Post Thursday, July 13, 2006; Page H01 Community Forklift Community Forklift might be best considered an environmentalist's salvage store. Items for sale run the gamut from light fixtures to lumber and doors to dishwashers, most of which were destined for the landfill Residential deconstruction jobs -- the process of removing materials from a building that can later be reused -- provide a steady supply stream for the nonprofit business. Salvaged and surplus materials from homeowners and contractors round out what's on the shelves. The store, a 34,000-square-foot warehouse, opened in November in a defunct Washington Gas coal gasification plant in an area once deemed a contaminated site because of the presence of hazardous materials. "We're very proud of the fact that it's sort of recycling that an abandoned site like this has been put back into use," President Jim Schulman said.
			Strolling through the warehouse, filled with tall metal shelving and rows of varied products, feels like shopping at a "used" Home Depot. Near the entrance, large plastic bags of insulation ($1.50 to $2) sit atop high racks. In the appliance area you can pick up a range for as little as $35. Another area contains stacks of used lumber ranging from 2-by-4s to 2-by-12s (20 cents to 99 cents per linear foot). Recycled doors and windows are in the back. Paints and stains can be had for $2 a quart or $5 a gallon. On the decorative end, the store has a nice selection of old radiators ($45 to $175) and mantels ($45 to $195), as well as lighting fixtures ($17.50 and up) and cabinets ($40 and up). Community Forklift also has begun to sell a range of environmentally friendly building supplies produced by Nature Neutral, a Charlottesville company that sells "environmentally preferable products" including paints, stains, sealers and flooring. Housewerks, 1415 Bayard St., Baltimore. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. 410-685-8047,http://www.housewerksalvage.com. Community Forklift, 4671 Tanglewood Dr., Edmonston. Wednesday, noon to 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 301-985-5180,http://www.communityforklift.com

Salvaging one man's junk

By Ann Geracimos
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 14, 2006

Community Forklift, a surplus, salvage and "green building" store near Hyattsville, wants to be all things to all people who are interested in saving money while helping save the environment.
    A full-time crew of four does this by collecting surplus building materials, some of which have historic value, and then selling them to the public for half or less what they would cost new. The result is a neighborhood yard sale a thousand times over.
    "One person's trash is another person's treasure" is the familiar line quoted on the Web site (www.communityforklift.com). "Expect the unexpected" might be a better choice because the items on hand are just about everything in the way of building materials the imagination can supply.
    Begun late last year by non-practicing architect Jim Schulman, Community Forklift is located in a 40,000-square-foot facility rented from Washington Gas in an industrial area near the railroad tracks just off Route 295 south. Its operations are conducted under its sponsoring organization, a D.C.-based nonprofit called Sustainable Community Initiatives, of which Mr. Schulman is executive director.
    Mr. Schulman -- whose official title is president of Community Forklift -- drives the rented truck picking up donations around the Greater Washington area. The store manager is lawyer Jon Zeidler, who says he grew "tired of the K Street life" and gave it up in favor of working on environmental issues.
    Typical products available at the store, said to be the only one of its kind in the Washington area, are doors, windows, ceramic and vinyl tiles, flooring, lumber, masonry, plumbing and electrical fixtures, carpeting and paints.

Not so typical -- a reflection of the eclectic nature of the business -- are mantelpieces, glass bricks, ornamental radiators, brass chandeliers and a 1,400-square-foot 80-year-old log cabin from West Virginia parked for the moment in two steel containers on the parking lot. Valued at $15,000, the cabin is said to have cost $100,000 when it was new. An organic farmer even found a rolling ladder for his home library, according to Ruthie Mundell, the organization's outreach director, who takes pride in the "funky stuff" she handles daily.

     The parking lot also holds half of a large shed and a collection of standard flat-bottom bathtubs. "Keeps them clean anyway," says Ms. Mundell, whose job includes recruiting volunteers to help sort goods and mark prices and then turning work sessions into a potluck or a singles party scene.
    Artist Marlene Belgrove rents some front office space for a gallery called Art Tribute Enterprises and allows the Forklift staff members to use it for the social gatherings they host for volunteers. One such volunteer is an electrician who comes twice weekly to check on the wiring of items for sale.
    Among other long-term goals, the organization hopes to foster community revitalization by making available a host of low-cost materials for home remodeling; to reduce the amount of landfill by rescuing reusable building materials; to develop training and career opportunities for low-income residents; and to educate the public about green building materials and methods, especially reuse. (Sample green building materials are cotton insulation, nontoxic paints and bamboo flooring.)
    Meanwhile, too, the store is cooperating with the recycling program manager in the Office of the Architect of the Capitol to collect the bricks people across the country have sent to their congressional representatives on behalf of legislation mandating construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Community Forklift has agreed to pick up the bricks when the campaign ends -- and take a few other items the office needs to get rid of as well.
    The motley array of goods found in the Community Forklift building is so enticing that a Northern Virginia company called Wraith Films chose it as the setting for a rock video. Also, an auction to benefit the Pentagon Memorial Fund was held on-site, hosted by Community Forklift with items for sale contributed from the renovation of Wedge 3 in the Pentagon.

From the June 13, 2003 print edition of the Washington Business Journal

Architect has plans for contractors' surplus materials

Sean Madigan, Staff Reporter

Jim Schulman already has a pile of commercial lighting and fencing materials tucked away in some empty space above his offices in Southeast Washington.

He can't use the stuff. He can't sell it. But he also can't bear to see it go to waste.

And if Schulman's plans materialize, by year-end his surplus building materials will not only have a home but likely be part of one.

Schulman, an architect and community activist who lives near Capitol Hill, is in the midst of a $300,000 fund-raising campaign to open a used building material business and warehouse where contractors and homeowners can donate surplus or used doors, windows, boards and bricks to a nonprofit called Community Forklift.

The nonprofit will have a for-profit subsidiary, which will resell material at less than half price for affordable housing construction and neighborhood revitalization. That organizational structure will allow contractors and builders to reap tax deductions on donations.

Through donations and commitments from corporations, individuals and trade groups, Schulman has about $75,000. He says he needs about $225,000 more, which he hopes will come from the local construction industry.

Schulman also is working with the Port Towns Community Development Corp., which serves Bladensburg, Colmar Manor and Cottage City in Prince George's County. The CDC (www.porttowns.com) included funding for Community Forklift in a recent grant application, and if the money comes through it would certainly sway Schulman toward locating the business in Maryland.

"It would be a huge incentive," he says.

Otherwise, Schulman is still weighing a number of options for a place to set up a 40,000-square-foot warehouse operation. His enterprise will basically have a retail feel and will look more like a Home Depot than a thrift store or scrap yard, he says.

Hammering away at unemployment

No matter what, Schulman says the business will be on the eastern side of the metro area -- where a business like Community Forklift is needed most.

Neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River have suffered massive disinvestment for the past 30 years and are only now starting to enjoy some of the economic resurgence occurring downtown and in other parts of the city.

Economic development officials say affordable housing and job training are paramount to a revitalization of those neighborhoods, and Schulman says Community Forklift can help with both. The availability of low-cost building materials could spur not only affordable housing but also development that creates jobs, he says.

Schulman expects Community Forklift will hire about six people initially and as many as 20 during the first year.

As the business grows, he would like to get into the deconstruction and remanufacturing business, which involves taking buildings apart and selling the pieces for reuse.

"That's where the money is," Schulman says.

In Baltimore, Mark Foster started Second Chance, a deconstruction business formed in 2000 that now operates out of three Maryland warehouses. Its bent is not affordable housing, but job training.

Working with the mayor's office, Second Chance trains workers in "surgical demolition" -- salvaging parts of old houses and reselling them, primarily to people renovating historic residences.

Enthusiasm builds nationwide

Job creation and affordable housing aren't the only benefits of the reuse concept. There are environmental advantages as well.

Experts estimate about 1 percent of an average city's buildings are torn down and replaced by new construction each year. If the building materials aren't salvaged, they'll likely end up in a landfill.

Schulman points out a Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission report stated that in 1999 more than half of the waste handled at Prince George's landfills -- 768,000 tons -- was construction debris.

Prompted by the reuse concept's benefits, used building material businesses have opened the past 20 years in many cities including San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Newark, N.J., and Minneapolis.

In this region, The Loading Dock, a used building material operation in Baltimore, opened in 1984. It takes in materials such as paint, lumber, cabinets and moldings and resells them.

The nonprofit runs a 21,000-square-foot warehouse in Northwest Baltimore, and in 2001, according to tax records, it had more than $100,000 left over after expenses.

On its Web site (www.loadingdock.org), the organization boasts it has "rescued" 33,000 tons of building materials from state landfills and helped more than 8,500 individuals and groups partner with more than 400 manufacturers and distributors in the mid-Atlantic.

Schulman sees The Loading Dock as a model for his Washington-based business. He says The Loading Dock's Executive Director Leslie Kirkland has told him she'd give him a month's worth of materials just to get started.

If Schulman can get the financing in order, he hopes to have the business ready to open by year-end. Eventually, he'd like Community Forklift to function as an incubator for smaller construction-related, start-up companies that would also encourage job creation.

E-mail: smadigan@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/816-0335