YORK COUNTY — The popular retail hobby and toy store, HobbyTown, has announced that it will move from its current location at 12761 Jefferson Ave. in Newport News to an 8,300 square-foot suite in the Village Square at Kiln Creek shopping center, located on Victory Boulevard in York County.
Scott Dayton, franchise owner, says that, currently, the space in Village Square, is currently being renovated and that the moving process will be complete by June. The move will provide an additional 2,300 square feet of space of retail space.
“I love York County, I love the people. I have always thought that space would be a good fit for us,” Dayton said of Village Square. “We outgrew our store in Newport News and we were looking for a healthy, vibrant spot and that one was available.”
HobbyTown is headquartered in Lincoln, Neb. and has over 100 locations across the country. It specializes in radio control hobbies, scale models as well educational materials for science, technology engineering and math.
Dayton and his wife, Kelly, own all four HobbyTown locations in Virginia, with the Newport News location founded in 2001.
HobbyTown is moving into a space that used to be occupied by the now-defunct arts and crafts chain, A.C. Moore. The chain’s parent company, Nicole Crafts, closed all of its Virginia locations in 2019, leaving a 19,560 square-foot vacancy in Kiln Creek.
York County’s Director of Economic and Tourism Development Jim Noel says that the county is excited to add HobbyTown to its portfolio of retailers.
He stated in an email with WYDaily, “We are very pleased with this addition to the shopping center and think they are a great fit for this location.”
Though nothing has yet to be announced, Noel said that the Virginia Beach-based company that owns Village Square, Breeden Company, has a good prospect for the remaining 11,000 square-feet of retail space.
