By Kari Pugh | Editor
The Outer Banks’ first Target won’t open this year after all.
Construction is still underway on the much-anticipated 80,000-square-foot store in Kill Devil Hills, but plans to open this year have been pushed to 2023.
“As external circumstances continue to evolve, there will naturally be some delays and shifts,” company spokesman Anthony Thomas said in an email. He did not elaborate on the delays, but said the store is now slated to open next year.
The Target will be in the old Kmart building at 1901 N. Croatan Highway. The Kmart closed in April 2020 after a 30-year run as one of two big box retailers on the Outer Banks, sharing the market with Walmart in Kitty Hawk.
Kmart was popular with tourists for its beach shop, and had survived 15 years of Sears and Kmart closures across the country. It was North Carolina’s last remaining Kmart.
Target purchased the building early last year and originally planned to tear down the aging structure, but later said it would remodel the existing store, which sits on a 14-acre plot of land owned by the Wright Company Inc. of Virginia Beach.
Transformco, a holding company for Sears and Kmart properties, announced the sale of the building in January 2021. Construction began in November.
Kari Pugh, kari.pugh@virginiamedia.com