A 37,000-square-foot space in the Echo Hollow Shopping Center has sat empty for nearly a year, but a Hobby Lobby crafts store will open there soon, Eugene Weekly has confirmed.
The national chain’s lease document with the Echo Hollow center, reviewed by the Weekly, shows Hobby Lobby, on Feb. 17, signed a 10-year lease, with two optional five-year extensions, for the space formerly occupied by Rite Aid. The pharmacy chain exited the site as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.
The privately owned Hobby Lobby’s stores are popular with consumers, while its right-wing politics are reviled by liberals. The chain’s owners are big supporters of President Donald Trump and big funders of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. Hobby Lobby, whose president, Steve Green, is also chairman of the museum’s board, had to return 3,800 smuggled ancient artifacts to Iraq in 2018, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It’s unclear when Hobby Lobby will open at the Echo Hollow spot at Barger Avenue and Echo Hollow Road. The company declined to comment to Eugene Weekly. The real estate brokerage representing the shopping center said it had not been cleared to comment. The shopping center is owned by a group headed by Eugene businessman Andy Storment. Hobby Lobby, late last month, applied for building permits to remodel the space.
The store will be Hobby Lobby’s second in Eugene-Springfield. The other is in Springfield’s Gateway area.
Northwest Eugene shoppers are enthused by the pending arrival of the Oklahoma-based chain, which has over 1,000 stores nationwide.
“We’re very excited about this,” says Michelle Fawver as she shops at a nearby business. Other businesses at or near the Echo Hollow center like the idea of the increased foot traffic Hobby Lobby will bring. A second empty space at the Echo Hollow Shopping Center, which used to be a Big Lots store, is to be taken by a Planet Fitness gym. Remodeling work is underway. Big Lots shut that store in 2024 in a move to cut underperforming outlets.
Hobby Lobby says it is the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world. It offers items from picture frames to jigsaw puzzles, bath towels and paper napkins and plates.
Hobby Lobby is also known for its roots in Christianity and the Bible. The company’s website says Hobby Lobby is committed to “honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.”
Hobby Lobby stores are closed on Sundays “to allow our employees and customers more time for worship and family.”
Some consumers find the limited hours irritating. “They are always closed on Sundays, and so that’s like one of the two days of the weekend when I want to go to a craft store,” says Arizona resident Karen Patton, who was visiting a relative in Eugene.
“If you’re going to have a craft store, you should open seven days a week,” she says.
Michaels, another major craft retail chain, is open on Sundays with slightly shorter hours, 10 am to 7 pm, instead of 9 am to 9 pm for the rest of the week.
Still, Hobby Lobby stores draw a lot of customers.
“I go there whenever I have extra money, which is not often,” says a woman who was taking her dog for an appointment at a veterinarian clinic in another building on the shopping center property. “I always end up with more things, more projects and ideas,” says the woman, who requested her name not be published for personal safety reasons unrelated to Hobby Lobby.
At Hobby Lobby, she buys household art and decorations, plus art supplies for her daughters. “For my youngest, anything she gravitates toward,” she says.
Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard in Eugene 1990-2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com.