Hobby Lobby, along with a bowling and amusement games venue, appear to be destined for the former Sears space at Vancouver Mall.
Seritage Growth Properties, the publicly traded New York company that owns the vacant storefront, lists the craft shop and the entertainment complex, called Round1, along with restaurant and retail space, as the planned uses. The plans for the Vancouver Mall property were among a list of 82 redevelopment projects listed in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report issued Feb. 28.
Construction is expected to start this quarter and be completed in the second quarter of 2020, the filing says.
A Seritage website indicates Hobby Lobby would be on the ground floor of the mall property, and Round1 would be on the upper level. That page shows Hobby Lobby with 51,500 square feet and adjoining retail or restaurant spaces of 10,750 square feet and 3,400 square feet. Round1 would take up all of the 46,250 square feet on the upper level.
The Clark County Geographic Information Services page for the property lists a lease document between Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and Seritage Finance dated Jan. 17.
Hobby Lobby is a privately held chain of more than 800 arts and crafts retail stores. In 2018, the Oklahoma City, Okla.-based company opened 54 new stores and relocated 20 store locations. Its nearest location to Vancouver is at Clackamas Promenade in Clackamas, Ore., one of four stores in Oregon.
The company has occasionally attracted attention for reasons unrelated to retailing. In 2017, the company, in an agreement with federal prosecutors, forfeited 5,500 artifacts smuggled out of Iraq and for which it had paid $1.6 million. In a 2014 ruling favorable to Hobby Lobby, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 that the government cannot force companies to pay insurance coverage for contraception if those businesses’ owners have religious objections.
Hobby Lobby is the third biggest craft and fabric retailer behind Michaels Stores and Jo-Ann Stores, says D&B Hoovers, and has about $4.5 billion in sales. It includes sister companies Mardel, a seller of Christian and educational products, and Hemispheres, a supplier of home furnishings and other merchandise to Hobby Lobby stores. CEO David Green, who owns the company, founded Hobby Lobby in 1972 and operates it according to biblical principles, including closing shop on Sunday, D&B Hoovers says.
Round1 is a multi-entertainment facility offering bowling, arcade games, billiards, karaoke, Ping-Pong, darts and a kids play area. The company is based in Osaka, Japan and has been expanding in the U.S., aiming to add 10 to 15 stores annually, having opened its first U.S. location in 2010 in the city of Industry, Calif., its website says. The closest Round1 to Clark County is in Tukwila at Westfield Southcenter, one of 39 U.S. stores listed on the website.
Owner Masahiko Sugino founded a company in 1980 called Sugino Kosan that featured a roller skate facility with arcade games, the company website says. A few years later, the facility expanded to include a bowling alley, becoming the first Round1 store in 1993. It had 105 stores in Japan in 2017.
Sears Holding Co. announced in August that the Sears at Vancouver Mall would be among those closed. The Sears store had been an anchor at Vancouver Mall since the shopping center opened in August 1977.
Officials with Seritage and Round1 could not be reached Monday. Tuesday morning, an email from Hobby Lobby arrived, saying, “At this time, we can confirm that a lease has been signed and our estimated opening is March 2020.”
Reporter Anthony Macuk contributed to this story.
