You shouldn’t worry too much about the blank Hobby Lobby, The Fresh Market ‘coming soon’ sign

This column has been edited to reflect the correct opening date for the PGA Tour Superstore.

If you drive by the construction site at the intersection of Burnt Church Road and U.S. 278 in Bluffton, you’ll notice the quick pace at which stores for a Hobby Lobby, a PGA Tour Superstore and The Fresh Market are being built.

However, if you look closely, you’ll notice that a sign in front of the future shopping center that once featured the names and logos of these stores has recently become blank.

A number of readers have asked The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette what this could mean and if these stores that the developer announced in March are still coming our way. Here’s what I was able to get a scoop on.

From what I can tell, Hobby Lobby is a pretty sure thing. A business license for Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is registered for Beaufort County. On the Hobby Lobby website, a job is listed for a Bluffton Retail co-manager at the address of the new shopping complex.

Confirmation of the PGA Tour Superstore wasn’t so easy. I had to find a news release from the retailer announcing it will open a store in the Hilton Head Island area by April 2017. This aligns with what the developer, David Oliver, told me in September about hoping to complete the project sometime around March 2017.

When I contacted The Fresh Market in August, I received a statement claiming the company was re-evaluating when it announces new stores.

I reached out to them again Tuesday for an update or an explanation related to the sign. Carly Dennis of Brave Public Relations said in an email that the grocery company did not have any news at this time.

Now, this is pure speculation, but I have an idea about why the sign might have been taken down.

I was researching The Fresh Market when I came across a news release in October about changes being made to the grocer’s current and future stores. According to the report, “The Fresh Market will begin rolling out refreshed stores across the country, with 13 more locations currently scheduled for (Nov. 30) in the Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, N.C., markets, and continuing in waves through early 2018.”

One of those major changes happening to the “refreshed” and future stores includes a brand new logo.

The sign previously posted in front of the shopping center featured the old logo, and it’s possible that a sign is coming that features The Fresh Market’s new image.

But if things don’t turn out for the grocery store in Bluffton, there’s always the nearby location on Hilton Head Island.

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "You shouldn’t worry too much about the blank Hobby Lobby, The Fresh Market ‘coming soon’ sign."