The Place
For years, the address 5084 Jonestown Rd meant something specific to a certain kind of local panic: the "I need this by tomorrow" kind that ends with ribbon, interfacing, and a fluorescent-lit aisle full of sewing supplies.
JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores operated here in Colonial Commons, a large shopping center in Lower Paxton Township.
In the center's leasing materials, JOANN is listed at 25,500 square feet, and Colonial Commons as a whole is shown as a 408,000-square-foot property - a shopping area designed to keep you wandering until you've either found what you came for or forgotten why you came at all.
The store was commonly identified as JOANN #2160, and the phone number appeared everywhere a person might look when trying to confirm that, yes, they still carried that one shade of thread that is never in stock until you don't need it.
The Property's Actual Backstory
Colonial Commons itself has the mild identity crisis common in shopping center history. Depending on which business document you believe, it was built in 1989 or in 1991.
Both versions agree on the more important milestone: a renovation in 2014, the kind of update that keeps a center easy for big chain stores and their signs to use.
There is, however, one date in the site's timeline that feels less like something from a brochure and more like real life.
The AMC Colonial Commons 9 opened on May 18, 1991, then closed on November 28, 2010, and later became store space (changed in 2012).
It's a clear local example of how these places last: they don't really end, they just get used for something else. If movie theaters close, the space does not sit empty; it just becomes another store.
JOANN Arrives, More or Less on Schedule
It is easier to figure out when JOANN started at this address, even if there was no big grand opening. A customer said the Jonestown Road location was a "brand new" JOANN superstore that opened in the fall of 2008.
A legal document also lists the address with the date 10/10/08, which matches that time, even if it sounds more like a paperwork date than an opening celebration.
By March 1, 2010, the store appears on JOANN's published store list - confirming it was operating by then, and consistent with accounts placing its opening in fall 2008.
After that, the story is the long middle part that does not make news - regular customers, staff people you recognize, and the slow building of local trust.
Craft stores are not flashy; they are more like a basic service: schools, churches, community theaters, and families quietly count on having a place that sells the things they need to make things themselves.
The End, and the Likely Next Act
The Harrisburg store did not close because people stopped caring about fabric or making things. It closed because the company went out of business.
In 2025, JOANN said it would close all its stores and shut down. When the final closings were reported, "Harrisburg - Colonial Commons" was named, linking this store to the national shutdown.
After that, the internet did what it always does: websites updated their status. Yelp marked the location as closed. MapQuest called it permanently closed.
Even the old store webpage for this location stopped working like a real store; it now sends people to a Michaels page meant to catch former JOANN shoppers, like an airport sign that sends craft people somewhere else.
What is left is the building and the shopping center around it. Colonial Commons has already shown what it does with empty space: it takes it, uses it for something new, and rents it out again.
A movie theater turned into a store. Businesses come and go. The parking lot stays busy.
The main point is simple and direct, like most store closings: JOANN at 5084 Jonestown Rd is closed, and the space will almost surely be used again - just not for fabric and craft supplies.
