Hobby Lobby, a national crafts and home decor chain, will open a store in Commack, its first on Long Island.

The Oklahoma City-based retailer leased the 43,000-square-foot store in King Kullen Plaza on Veterans Memorial Highway that had been occupied by Sports Authority, which closed this year as part of the company’s bankruptcy. Currently leased by a Christmas pop-up store, Hobby Lobby will begin extensive remodeling after the holidays and aims to open the Commack store in August 2017.

The company is seeking to expand here and is eyeing other potential locations.

“We do not have a presence on Long Island and have been looking for opportunities in the area,” Bob Miller, Hobby Lobby’s communications coordinator, said via email. “We are eager to get going on this new location in Commack and hope it is the first of several on Long Island.”

Hobby Lobby is expected to hire about 35–50 people to staff the Commack store, paying $15.35 per hour for full-time and $10.23 per hour for part-time workers, according to Miller.

Hobby Lobby Stores, the largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer in the country, has more than 700 locations in 47 states. It began in 1970 as a miniature picture frame company called Greco and became Hobby Lobby after founder David Green moved the business from his garage to a 300- square-foot retail space in Oklahoma City in 1972. The company now occupies a 3.4 million-square-foot manufacturing, distribution and office complex in Oklahoma City and has offices in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. The chain’s annual revenue exceeds $3 billion, according to published reports.

Each Hobby Lobby store offers more than 75,000 crafting and home decor products including floral, fabric, needle art, custom framing, baskets, home accents, wearable art, wedding supplies, arts and crafts, jewelry making, scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies.

The company’s stores are closed on Sundays and Hobby Lobby is committed to “honoring the Lord” by operating the company “in a manner consistent with biblical principles,” according to its website.

The company’s religious beliefs figured prominently when it went to court in 2012 to keep it from providing health insurance coverage that paid for certain contraceptives for its female employees. The case went to the Supreme Court, which in 2014 delivered what’s known in legal circles as the Hobby Lobby decision ruling 5-4 that “closely held” companies controlled by religious families can’t be required to pay for contraception coverage.

Rachel Butiu and Neil Schorr of Realty Insight Group represented Hobby Lobby, while landlord Kimco Realty was self-represented in the Commack lease negotiations.