Just in time for the holiday season, Paperworks is back in business and has opened its first retail location, sharing space with Great Lakes Bath & Body (next to Brew) at 110 E. Front Street in downtown Traverse City.

The Utopia Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Paul Sutherland, president of Traverse City investment firm FIM Group, recently purchased Paperworks’ assets from former operator Goodwill Industries.

It was one year ago when Goodwill announced it was closing the Paperworks Studio – which produced popular handmade recycled greeting cards made by adults with disabilities – to refocus its energies into workforce development.

In addition to the loss of the cards, the closure left more than two-dozen employees with varying disabilities out of a job; some found employment elsewhere in the Goodwill organization and others accepted severance packages.

Those will be the first candidates offered their former jobs back, says Interim Executive Director Mimi Spaulding, who has been involved with Paperworks almost since its inception.

“We hope to ramp up to 30 employees by the end of 2015, but that will be in steps,” Spaulding says. “I have a pretty strong feeling we’re going to see a lot of familiar faces because this really is a family.”

Goodwill leaders had initially hoped to transition ownership of Paperworks to Grand Traverse Industries, a company that employs more than 300 disabled individuals between its Traverse City, Mancelona and Petoskey locations, but the deal fell through when financing came up short.

Lynn Rodenroth, owner of Great Lakes Bath & Body, tells The Ticker she was immediately interested when approached by Sutherland with the idea of Paperworks sharing some space.

A longtime customer of Paperworks, Sutherland was disappointed when he learned the business had closed. After meeting with other concerned community members, he decided to purchase the company and "return it to the community." He says grants and donations are now needed to keep the nonprofit operating.

Paperworks was started more than 20 years ago by a special education teacher at the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD) to teach his students new skills and get them involved in a creative process. Goodwill operated it for five years.

Rodenroth says the handmade cards are a natural fit with her business, which sells handcrafted soaps, bath salts, lotions and more.

“I plan to incorporate some of the handmade paper into my packaging,” along with other ideas, says Rodenroth.

Spaulding says that is just the beginning of the company’s plans for new products and markets.

“We hope to partner with more businesses on packaging,” she says, adding she is also looking to produce fine art paper for artists to use for screen printing, mats for photographs and other uses, and is also exploring producing actual art pieces.

Paperworks is using a soon-to-be-vacant commercial space at the corner of Parsons and Airport Access as a staging facility for organizing stock and packaging. It hopes to have a lease signed and production up and running by February, when it will start ramping up its design and production workforce.

A new website, with the company’s full product line, is expected in early 2015.