Hobby Lobby, Mardel moving in to share vacant Kmart building

TULSA — Big box stores can be hard to fill. Since relatively few tenants need that much space, many of them can sit vacant for years before they come back to life.

But when the Kmart at 3132 E 51st St. in Tulsa shut down in mid-July, it didn’t stay vacant for long.

Hobby Lobby and its sister company Mardel will soon jointly occupy the former Kmart, said Zack Higbee, a spokesman for Hobby Lobby.

Improving experience

Of the 85,000-squarefoot store, the arts and crafts store, Hobby Lobby, will occupy 60,000 square feet, while Mardel, a Christian bookstore and Technically, the two stores won’t be new Tulsa locations. The Hobby Lobby at Woodland Village Shopping Center around the corner and the Mardel store two blocks farther south will eventually close and move to the former Kmart. education supply center, will take the remaining 25,000 square feet.

Higbee said the companies are already working on the building’s conversion.

“We hope to have it ready by early 2016,” he said.

As part of the process, the building will be divided into two completely separate units, each with its own front entrance, he said.

Technically, the two stores won’t be new locations. The Hobby Lobby at Woodland Village Shopping Center around the corner and the Mardel store two blocks farther south will eventually close and move to the former Kmart.

Higbee said the 51st Street location will offer better visibility from Interstate 44 and better service.

“We’re just striving to better serve our customers, and we feel the move will heighten their shopping experience,” he said.

The move may have been planned before Kmart even closed. When Howard Riefs, director of corporate communications for Sears Holdings, announced the closure in May, he said an unspecified retailer would open at the location in the near future.

Hobby Lobby grows

Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby operates four locations in the Tulsa area. The chain operates more than 600 stores and plans to open 70 more by the end of the year, Higbee said.

Hobby Lobby was founded by the Green family in 1972. In 1981, Mart Green formed Mardel and continues to serve as that chain’s CEO. Mardel has 35 locations, including two in Tulsa.

One Kmart store remains in the Tulsa area.