“There is” and “there are” are present-tense constructions used in English to describe an object or objects at a particular location. In Spanish, the equivalent expression is hay. This form will work whether you are referring to one or more objects:

Hay un pequeño almacén entre el restaurante italiano y la librería.

There is a small grocery store between the Italian restaurant and the bookstore.

Hay muchos libros en el estante.

There are a lot of books on the bookshelf.

The expression will work the same way in other tenses — all you need to do is conjugate haber in the third-person singular form of the right tense:

Había un pequeño almacén entre el restaurante italiano y la librería.

There was a small grocery store between the Italian restaurant and the bookstore.

Habrá muchos libros en el estante.

There will be a lot of books on the bookshelf.