Commonwealth Autism CEO Tyler Hart and Good Foods Grocery founder Donnie Caffery. The nonprofit has acquired the South Richmond grocery store to launch a workforce training program. (Photo courtesy of Commonwealth Autism)
After years of offering other sorts of support services for people with autism, Commonwealth Autism decided it was time for a program expansion with the introduction of workforce training.
Naturally, the Henrico-based nonprofit needed a workplace to do that.
Tyler Hart, the organization’s CEO, said it had been on the hunt for such a venue and looked at different types of businesses in the area, before it stumbled upon the right fit in South Richmond.
The 28-year-old nonprofit has struck a deal to purchase Good Foods Grocery, a longtime independent local grocery store at Stony Point Village shopping center that was looking for a buyer ahead of the retirement of founder Donnie Caffery.
“We were looking at coffee shops and things like that, a retail-type establishment to do training in. By happenstance we came across the listing for Good Foods,” Hart said.
Tyler Hart
Hart declined to disclose the terms of the deal, which closed Monday and gives Commonwealth Autism the vehicle it needs for its new vocational training venture.
The acquisition was a stock purchase of Good Foods, and the grocery store will continue to operate as a separate, wholly owned subsidiary of the nonprofit.
Hart said the vocational program, which is new ground for the group, is being developed because autistic adults as a population experience high levels of unemployment. The program is expected to launch early next year and is intended to teach both job and social skills needed for employment.
“The goal is long-term sustainable employment so they can have an independent lifestyle,” he said.
Hart said a portion of the program would take place at Good Foods, while another segment would take place at a partner business that would hire the program students.
“You learn job skills but we hope to make it more robust than that. It’s also how you work in a social environment,” Hart said. “We want to find community partners who want to hire neurodiverse employees. We don’t have them lined up yet, but we have begun those conversations.”
Hart said he expected the program would offer local job placement opportunities primarily but not exclusively at retail businesses, including at Good Foods.
The acquisition of the grocery store is being financed by the sale of Commonwealth Autism’s real estate assets, among them its headquarters at 4108 E. Parham Road.
The two-story, 6,000-square-foot building is expected to be listed soon. It has an assessment value of $920,000, per county land records.
The sale of that property would be added to the proceeds from the December 2022 sale of a transition house for autistic adults the nonprofit operated in the Willow Lawn area. The house sold for $585,000.
“The concept was to take the real estate assets and put them into programs,” Hart said.
Hart said Commonwealth Autism is working on lining up a new location for its administrative offices, which would also be home to programming space and a training kitchen, near Good Foods. He said the group was weighing more than one possible site.
Good Foods Grocery in Stony Point Village shopping center (BizSense file)
Commonwealth Autism has 17 employees and also leases office space in Virginia Beach. The 43-person team at Good Foods is expected to stay on with the change in ownership, and will likely be made employees of the nonprofit at some point, Hart said.
Grocery stores are known for their tight margins, but Hart said Good Foods has good financials, and he is optimistic the store could be a new revenue source for the nonprofit.
“They have a great business. We want to keep that customer base happy and keep the people in the store who have been in the store,” Hart said.
It also helps that Good Foods founder Caffery plans to stick around to show the nonprofit the ropes. He has been hired by Commonwealth Autism to serve as a hands-on advisor for a year, and will serve in a more limited consulting role for the following two years.
In the runup to the sale, Caffery told BizSense that the grocery store’s business has been strong, so he felt it was an opportune time to pass the torch in order to retire.
Commonwealth Autism’s ownership ushers in a new chapter for the long-tenured South Richmond grocery store. Caffery opened the store at Stony Point Village nearly 40 years ago, and expanded its square footage in 2012 and again in 2020 to its current leased footprint of 9,400 square feet.
In 2016, Good Foods shuttered a second location at Gayton Crossing, which originally opened at Westpark Shopping Center in 1990 before it relocated to Gayton Crossing in 1993.
Commonwealth Autism’s other programming includes a resources database for families of autistic people, independent-living counseling for adults and an in-school behavioral support program for preschoolers.
The nonprofit, which is also known as the Autism Program of Virginia, reported revenue of $1.5 million and expenses of $1.2 million in fiscal year 2022, according to tax filings.
Max’s Positive Vibe Cafe founder Garth Larcen has been working as a consultant to Commonwealth Autism, and has helped in the development of the vocational training program. The now-closed cafe had also served as a space for job training for people with special needs.
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