There’s a huge local project underway that’s bucking the trend of brick and mortar retail stores closing across the country.  Hobby Lobby is building a new store in Sunnybrook and it’s going up fast thanks to a local company.

You may have driven past the new building.  It’s right across from Target.  And if you’ve wondered if it went up overnight, that’s not too far from the truth. 

Hobby Lobby has an ambitious plan to go from groundbreaking to cash registers ringing in 90-100 days, and they’re on track.  And along the way a huge boost for a local company that’s helping them.

“It only took 14 days to put all of this up,” says Pat Boeshart, LiteForm CEO.

Hobby Lobby is rapidly changing the landscape of retail in the Sunnybrook area. This new building, a replacement for the current store on Southern Hills Drive, is on pace to open August 1st.  That’s roughly 100 days from when they broke ground.

Pat says, “These walls on the outside are ready for paint, which is what they’ll be. And the inside is ready for pegboard.”

Pat Boeshart is the man behind the technology that’s making this happen. Hobby Lobby is using LiteForm technology in these walls. Most locals are familiar with the South Sioux City company, which uses construction grade foam filled with concrete but this project is unlike many others.

“The difference between how we’ve done it at Hobby Lobby: we’ve actually put the insulation inside of the two thicknesses of concrete. They poured a thin layer, about three inches on the concrete, the existing floor, then we put our insulation in, pour another later on top and they waited three days and then they set all the walls up in three days,” says Pat Boeshart.

The process has basically saved Hobby Lobby a whole step and a couple extra weeks of construction. Most even more important than time, Pat says, is energy efficiency.  “What they’re doing is looking at the energy efficiency, [which is] mandated, and looking at what this building is going to cost to heat and cool annually,” added Pat.

And a successful project here, could mean big things for LiteForm. Hobby Lobby builds 65 new stores a year, and Pat says, they’re watching to see how this goes.

“[There’s] a lot of amazing stuff going on and we hope to become a major player with Hobby Lobby, Boeshart says.

Here are some more numbers from this project.  It took just 43 days from the groundbreaking to getting the walls up and Pat says that includes 2 snow days and 4 rain days.