Hobby Lobby to open seven stores in Tri-State

An Oklahoma City big-box retailer has picked the Tri-State for its first stores in Ohio, two of which will open early next year.

The first Hobby Lobby Creative Center will open in January, after converting the closed JumboSports store at Fields Ertel and Montgomery Roads in Deerfield Township, said Bill Darrow, Hobby Lobby's vice president of real estate. The second is a 55,000-squarefoot facility near Main Street in west Hamilton scheduled to open in March.

Five more stores will follow on an as-yet undetermined timetable, Darrow said.

The chain, with annual sales...