Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a national craft supply retailer, has leased a 52,000-square-foot space west of the Spokane Valley Mall formerly occupied by now-defunct Joe's Sports, Outdoor & More.

Carl Guenzel, a real estate agent with Kiemle & Hagood Co. here, says the Oklahoma City, Ok.-based Hobby Lobby expects to open the store in August. The store space is located in the Evergreen Crossing shopping center, at 13909 E. Indiana, which also is home to outlets for Honey Baked Ham and T-Mobile. Guenzel says the store will be Hobby Lobby's first in Washington state, and that it recently opened an outlet in Boise.

"They are hitting the Northwest hard," says Guenzel, who handled the lease for Hanson Industries Inc., which built Evergreen Crossing in 2007.

G.I. Joe's Inc. was the original anchor tenant for the shopping center, which is west across Evergreen Road from the mall complex, but that Wilson, Ore.-based retailer filed for bankruptcy in early 2009, and closed its store here in April of 2009. The space has been vacant ever since, Guenzel says.

Hobby Lobby was founded in Oklahoma City in 1972, its Web site says. The chain now operates 447 stores in 37 states, selling art supplies, picture frames, fabrics, holiday supplies, and crafting supplies. It operates a 725,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, where it produces wooden items, candles, and scented items.

Yost, Mooney & Pugh Contractors Inc., of Spokane is working on tenant improvements for the new store here, Guenzel says. After Hobby Lobby moves in, the strip will have about 5,000 square feet of vacant space, he says.

Guenzel says the Hobby Lobby lease is a positive indicator for the retail sector here, particularly in Spokane Valley.

"We've had great luck out in Spokane Valley. The retailers are starting to look for new sites," he says.

Guenzel says Hanson Industries has leased about 80,000 square feet of retail space in the area surrounding the Valley Mall in the last year, including a space leased by Jo-Ann Stores Inc., which last year took over the former Circuit City location in the Market Pointe I shopping center at 15110 E. Indiana, just east of the mall. He says Kiemle & Hagood currently is negotiating with possible tenants for a proposed new 5,500-square-foot retail building at Market Pointe I, which would be built on a retail pad near the Jo-Ann outlet, but plans are still preliminary for that project, he says.