Sumter development attracts Hobby Lobby and two more stores in former K-Mart building

Two years after the K-Mart in Sumter closed and left the 1143 Broad St. bare, new businesses to fill the huge space are within sight.

In May, The Sumter Item reported that Hobby Lobby would occupy the majority of the old K-Mart building. This week, the newspaper reported a sign went up at the location announcing that Burlington would open in the same space.

During the pandemic, the opening date for the Hobby Lobby was pushed back multiple times from November, to January and finally the spring. Hobby Lobby officials told The State they expect to open the store in early April and it will be the 21st Hobby Lobby in South Carolina.

City records list Libby Dial Enterprises as building permit applicants for the Broad Street building. On Jan. 14, the applicant obtained a building permit for Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, a discount retail store.

A partner with Libby Dial Enterprises told The Sumter Item that a third tenant will have a spot in the newly renamed shopping center, The Crossing at Camden Highway, but the tenant has not been named.

Hobby Lobby will be the largest retailer in the strip at 55,000 square feet and will hire between 35-50 employees, according to a company press release. The privately owned craft giant raised its minimum full-time hourly wage to $17 and its part-time minimum hourly wage to $11 in October.

Other Burlington locations in the Midlands are at the Village at Sandhill in Northeast Richland and Dutch Square Center on Bush River Road in Columbia.

This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 11:41 AM.