CHRISTIANA – The national arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby is preparing to open its first location in New Castle County after recently signing a lease at University Plaza off Route 273.
It will take over a portion of the current Burlington department store in the shopping center as that retailer downsizes its current space.
Following a request for comment, a Burlington representative said that the company “did not have anything to share at this time,” while Hobby Lobby did not respond. Work has already begun to subdivide the 50,000 square feet that the new store will occupy at 59 University Drive, according to the lease filed with the county.
While an opening timeline has not yet been publicly released, Hobby Lobby signed a 10-year lease with three potential five-year renewal periods with shopping center owner Universal Realty Associates in June. The lease comes with an exclusivity clause guaranteeing that no other arts and crafts retailer can locate in the plaza.
It will mark the second store in Delaware for the Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby, a brand that has grown nationally in part due to its owner’s politically and socially conservative stances. Like competitors Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics, it carries products like fabric, needle art, custom framing, baskets, home accents, wearable art, arts and crafts, jewelry making supplies, and scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies at its more than 900 stores nationwide.
A 58,000-square-foot store at the intersection of U.S. Route 13 and College Road in Dover opened in September 2020. That store reportedly created upward of 50 jobs.
