New Circle thrift stores get upgrades. Former home of Scott’s Roll-Arena is coming down.

The Salvation Army Thrift Store at 228 East New Circle Road is about to get a major upgrade.

Store staff has just finished clearing it out for demolition to start, said Major Nancy Beauchamp of the Salvation Army.

Designs for the new building will come soon, along with a formal ground-breaking, she said. Construction will take more than a year.

“It’s not going to be bigger, but it will be much nicer,” Beauchamp said.

Future patrons can “come in with dignity and enjoy their experience with us. We felt it was time to tear it down and show the community we can bring that standard up,” she said.

The new store will offer a donation drive-through, among other amenities.

The building in which the thrift store had been operating was once Scott’s Roll-Arena, a skating rink where many Lexingtonians now in their 50s to 70s perfected their speed skating skills and noshed on giant dill pickles. It closed in 1975 after more than three decades in business.

The Salvation Army location isn’t the only thrift store location around New Circle East being spiffed up.

The Goodwill store at 130 New Circle Road, at the intersection with North Limestone, has recently completed a remodeling. That store building was at one time a Kmart.

The goal of the remodeling, which mirrors those of other Kentucky Goodwill stores, is to standardize the experience of visiting a Goodwill store while emphasizing the local impact the stores have.

“We’ve taken on a major re-branding project for our entire organization,” said Heather Hise, Goodwill spokesperson. “We are in the process of giving a new look and feel to all our spaces.”

Goodwill operates 64 stores in Kentucky, of which the Lexington store is the largest, with a total footprint of 16,500 square feet, 12,800 of its on the retail floor.

As the re-branding spreads to more stores, shoppers will begin to associate Goodwill with a distinctive shopping experience, Hise said.

“It’s kind of like when you walk into a Target or a T.J. Maxx, and it doesn’t matter what city you are in,” Hise said.