Hobby Lobby, one of the biggest U.S. arts-and-crafts retailers, has leased a large former Bed Bath & Beyond location in North Jersey as the defunct home-goods chain's sites attract tenants.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby will be occupying 180 Route 10 in East Hanover. Renovations are underway at the one-time Bed Bath & Beyond store, a standalone site that sits on four acres along a busy retail corridor.

Jeffery Realty cited the lease in an email on Friday about its first-quarter transactions. The brokerage represented both the tenant, Hobby Lobby, and the landlord.

Hobby Lobby didn't respond to an email from CoStar News seeking comment.

But the East Hanover property is about 50,200 square feet, a large enough footprint for a typical Hobby Lobby store, according to Bill Read, an executive vice president at Retail Specialists. That is not the first vacant Bed Bath & Beyond store that Hobby Lobby has leased. Nearly two years ago it struck a deal to occupy a 40,000-square-foot freestanding former Bed Bath & Beyond at 7507 McKnight Road in Pittsburgh.

Vacant Bed Bath & Beyond locations have been scooped up by a variety of retailers, including Hobby Lobby, since the chain went out of business. Burlington Stores, the off-price apparel seller, has leased a number of those sites, as have crafts seller Michaels and HomeGoods. And Macy's has taken at least of the two of the former Bed Bath & Beyond locations for its new small-format stores.

Hobby Lobby, founded in 1972, on its website describes itself as "one of the largest arts and crafts retailers in the USA — if not the world," with more than 1,000 stores. It sells home decor, fabrics and sewing accessories, do-it-yourself crafting materials, art supplies, floral accessories, yarn and baking supplies.

Two years ago, Hobby Lobby leased a former Babies R Us store on Staten Island, its first location in New York City. Hobby Lobby took a 42,768-square-foot site at The Crossings, a strip center at the Staten Island Mall. It has 25 locations in New York State alone. This year, Hobby Lobby is slated to open five stores, according to Coresight Research.

Both the Bed Bath & Beyond and Babies R Us sites were vacant because of their companies' 2018 liquidations. Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond shuttered its namesake stores — as well as the Buy Buy Baby and Face Value chains — last year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

And Wayne, New Jersey-based Toys R Us went out of business in 2018, closing its namesake chain and Babies R Us, after it filed for Chapter 11. A new owner is in the process of reviving both those chains.

In December 2019, then-struggling Bed Bath & Beyond did a $267.3 million sale-leaseback deal with Chicago-based Oak Street Real Estate Capital for a large part of its real estate portfolio. The deal was for 14 stores, including the one in East Hanover, one distribution center and the retailer's headquarters, according to CoStar data.

Roughly two months ago, Hobby Lobby posted a job opening on LinkedIn for a co-manager for its new East Hanover store.

Mike Testa of Jeffery Realty represented Hobby Lobby in the lease. Bill Farkas and Teddy Shamma of Jeffery represented the landlord.