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Hobby Lobby has signed a lease to occupy a space in Clovis, and shoppers can expect a fall opening.

The retail craft giant will fill the vacated Toys R Us location at 1425 Shaw Avenue, according to Andy Haussler, economic development director for the City of Clovis, who estimated the opening later this year.

When Toys R Us finally closed its doors in 2018, the location in Clovis was one of the last holdouts, Haussler said. That real estate was owned by the corporate office, and according to a memorandum of lease filed with the County of Fresno, Hobby Lobby signed a 10-year agreement with TRU 2005 RE I, LLC, Toys R Us’ previous real estate arm that changed to Hill Street Properties in March 2019.

It didn’t take long to fill the approximately 47,771 square-foot property, said Haussler.

“It’s encouraging to see the big boxes get filled up,” he said.

An application was filed for tenant improvement, but Haussler noted that the store was in pretty good shape.

The city’s economic development department has been working aggressively to fill its empty big box locations, Haussler said. A number of potential tenants are looking at the Orchard Supply Hardware on Shaw Avenue in Clovis and the Kmart “has a strong potential user,” said Haussler, though it being still in the negotiating stages, he could not reveal those names.

“We’re excited to see that Shaw is strong and getting reinvested in,” Haussler said.