Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a privately held national retail chain of craft and home decor stores, is set to open a new store in Cape Coral. Construction is underway on this new 50,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by JC Penney, located in the Coralwood Mall along Del Prado Boulevard, South, near Veterans Memorial Parkway.

Hobby Lobby currently has 53 locations in Florida. The Cape Coral store is projected to open in early June. The location will bring about 35-50 jobs to the community paying $18.50 per hour for full-time and $13.00 per hour for part-time associates.

“Once you visit Hobby Lobby, you will see that we are very unique, offering the widest variety of merchandise in the craft and home decor market under one roof,” stated Kelly Black, assistant vice president of advertising “We’re tremendously excited about becoming a part of the Cape Coral community.”

Hobby Lobby has over 900 stores across the nation. Each store offers more than 70,000 crafting and home decor products including floral, fabric, needle art, custom framing, baskets, home accents, wearable art, arts and crafts, jewelry making, scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies.

Store hours are Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Hobby Lobby stores are closed on Sunday.

Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a major Oklahoma City-based corporation began as Greco, a miniature picture frame company in 1970. When David Green moved his business from the family garage to a 300-square-foot retail space in 1972, Hobby Lobby was born. It is now the nation’s largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer.

For more information about Hobby Lobby, weekly specials, store locations and online shopping, visit hobbylobby.com, download the mobile app or follow on Facebook at facebook.com/hobbylobby.