A building permit indicates that Hobby Lobby is planning a new store at 3671 North Freeway Boulevard in North Natomas, placing the craft and home decor chain inside one of the area's busiest retail corridors. The address sits within a sprawling commercial property known as the Promenade at Sacramento Gateway, just off two of the region's major freeways and a short drive from Sacramento International Airport.
The permit was first reported by the Sacramento Business Journal, which identified the Promenade at Sacramento Gateway as the project's location. Property records from CompStak confirm that name for the site and describe it as a single-story retail property built in 2007 that spans 665,600 square feet. No opening date, store size or hiring timeline has been confirmed for the planned Hobby Lobby location.
A Retail Corridor Built for Big-Box Shopping
The property's location near Interstate 80 via Truxel Road and close to Interstate 5 makes it a convenient stop for shoppers heading to or from Sacramento International Airport, according to a listing from CBRE. That same listing notes the retail building already shares space with an array of national names, including Ashley Furniture, Best Buy, BevMo!, Target, Michael's, TJ Maxx, Big 5, Old Navy and Ulta. CompStak also lists Natomas Marketplace and North Natomas Place among comparable nearby properties, underscoring how much retail density already surrounds the site.
Hobby Lobby is known nationally for its craft supplies and home decor offerings, a mix detailed on the retailer's own site. Per Hobby Lobby's store locator, the chain stocks everything from craft supplies and party decorations to artificial flowers, home decor, fabrics and custom framing services under one roof.
Part of a Steady Expansion Push
The potential Natomas store would follow a string of recent openings for the chain. Hobby Lobby's newsroom reports that a new Riverbank, California store opened on September 25, marking the chain's 73rd California location, according to Hobby Lobby's newsroom. The same source notes that stores in Granbury, Texas and Aurora, Colorado opened within days of each other earlier this month, with the Aurora location marking the chain's 22nd in that state.
Hobby Lobby's locations are often described as adding up to more than 1,000 stores nationwide, though sourcing on the exact count varies. A March report from the Press Democrat put the figure at 1,000-plus locations nationwide, while NPR has reported the company describing itself as operating about 1,000 stores across 48 states with roughly 46,000 employees.
Craft Retailers Chasing Joann's Former Customers
The push into new markets comes as craft retailers compete for shoppers left without a store after Joann's closures. A Numerator survey found that 74% of Joann shoppers said they would now turn to Michaels or Hobby Lobby for the products they used to buy at Joann, according to Retail Dive. That shift in shopper habits has coincided with a broader expansion period for Hobby Lobby in California specifically.
The Press Democrat's March report noted that Hobby Lobby was converting a 67,000-square-foot former Valley Furniture location in Rohnert Park into a new store, and that the chain had 69 stores in California at the time, including two in the North Bay with a third under construction in Petaluma. The same report pointed to an earlier California opening, a 43,000-square-foot Hobby Lobby store in Fairfield that debuted in July 2020, as an example of the chain's footprint growing store by store across the state.
No details have been verified yet about tenant-improvement costs, job openings or whether the Natomas project has received final approval, and construction has not been confirmed to have begun at the North Freeway Boulevard address.
