After years and years of begging and pleading, many locals and visitors will finally get their wish as Target officially opens its doors Sunday at 8 a.m. in Kill Devil Hills.
Target becomes the second major retailer to open on the Outer Banks this year, after Marshall’s grand opening in Southern Shores on Thursday.
The first Royal Farms convenience store in North Carolina will open soon in Grandy, the first 7-11 located in Moyock is almost ready to open and construction of the state’s first Wawa is in full swing across U.S. 158 from Target.
The Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony, sponsored by ACE Hardware and Towne Bank Insurance, at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday for the 110,000-square-foot Target at 1901 North Croatan Highway.
In 2021, Target purchased what was the home of North Carolina’s last Kmart. Fences went up around the parking lot and materials for a new roof were delivered in the winter of 2022, but nothing else appeared to be happening.
Under the original proposal, the building would have been remodeled and divided into an 80,000-square-foot Target and the remainder would have been leased to another tenant.
That would have been closer to the average size of Target’s smaller-format stores, which the company had been placing in various settings around the country. The nearest Target to the Outer Banks in southern Chesapeake is almost 126,000 square feet.
A new site plan was submitted last June to the Town of Kill Devil Hills that had “the entire building to be occupied by Target including interior remodel, exterior façade remodel, and additional improvements to the existing parking lot including layout and landscaping.”
Renovations on the nearly 30-year-old building started in earnest late last summer, and has steadily progressed ever since.
Along with Target’s regular offerings of clothing, electronics, home goods, and groceries, the Kill Devil Hills store also has a CVS Pharmacy, Alta Beauty products section, and a Starbucks.
