Greenwood Village Lets Grace Chapel Keep Iconic Sheplers Sign Over Boot Barn Store

A nearly 50-year-old western wear sign along Interstate 25 in Greenwood Village will keep standing, at least for now, after the city council narrowly approved plans letting a nondenominational church take over the former Boot Barn building and preserve the landmark Sheplers signage. The Greenwood Village City Council voted 4-3 on August 17 to approve Grace Chapel's proposal to convert the 8500 E. Orchard Road property into a worship center while allowing the church to keep and repair the old sign.

The vote caps a process that has played out for more than a year, as reported by BusinessDen, which first detailed the sign fight and the church's relocation plans. Grace Chapel has worked on the takeover deal for 13 months, according to the outlet, and the municipal filings — designated Case Nos. PZ-26-00017 and PZ-26-00026 for the Special Use Permit and Site Development Plan — required review by both the Planning Commission and City Council, per records from the City of Greenwood Village.

The building itself carries retail history stretching back decades. Built in 1977 under corporate owner W.R. Grace & Co., the Greenwood Village Sheplers was only the third free-standing Sheplers store ever constructed in the United States, according to Mile High CRE. Sheplers itself traces back to 1899, when J.W. Gibson opened the Gibson Harness Company in Wichita, Kansas, before Harry Shepler bought the business in 1946 and grew it into a national catalog and western wear chain, per federal filings cited by SEC.gov.

From Saddlery to Boot Barn to Sanctuary

Sheplers stores became Boot Barn stores in 2015, after Boot Barn Holdings acquired Sheplers for $147 million in cash, taking over 25 retail locations nationwide and boosting Boot Barn's e-commerce penetration from 4% to 15%, according to corporate filings. Boot Barn currently holds a lease at the Orchard Road location through June 2027. Denver-based Sidford Capital bought the underlying property for $8.3 million in 2019 after Boot Barn downsized its footprint inside the oversized building, Mile High CRE reported at the time.

That building has unusual bones for a retail conversion: the 86,600-square-foot structure sits on 4.8 acres along I-25 and features 30-foot ceilings and exposed timber beams, according to the same Mile High CRE report — architectural features that help explain how the space can accommodate the 1,000-seat sanctuary Grace Chapel envisions. The church plans to add more landscaping, install more glass in the front, create a new entry, and replace the roof as part of the buildout, per BusinessDen's reporting. Grace Chapel expects the full transition to take about one year to 18 months.

The Sign at the Center of the Fight

Under current sign code, city staff said the Sheplers sign does not conform to today's rules, but it remains grandfathered because it still refers to Boot Barn, the building's current tenant. That legal footing is fragile: Greenwood Village Municipal Code Section 16-2-80 states that legal nonconforming signs not actively and continuously used for six consecutive months are deemed abandoned, terminating the right to maintain them. City officials warned the sign could eventually be removed if it is considered abandoned once it no longer refers to the departing tenant.

The debate split public comment and the council itself. Libby Hilton Barnacle wanted the sign to stay, while Paul Wiesner argued it is an eyesore that does not fit in with the city, according to BusinessDen's account of the hearing. Grace Chapel Senior Pastor Josh Weidmann said the sign is important to people, a sentiment that ultimately swayed a majority of the council in the 4-3 vote, though three members voted against allowing it to remain.

A Church With a History of Repurposing Commercial Buildings

This isn't the first time Grace Chapel has moved into a former commercial property along the I-25 corridor. The church has operated since 1995 in a former car dealership across from Park Meadows Mall, after purchasing the old Leo Payne Auto Plaza in Centennial/Englewood in late 1994 and completing renovations to open its worship center that October, according to the church's own historical account. Grace Chapel was founded in 1979 by pastor Paul Barnes as a suburban church plant serving the southeast Denver metro area, and Weidmann became senior pastor in May 2015 after a national search by the congregation's elder board.

For now, the Sheplers name will keep watching over southbound I-25 traffic, a relic of a 116-year-old western wear brand now tied to the fate of a growing nondenominational congregation. Whether the sign survives long-term will depend on how Greenwood Village's abandonment clock interacts with Grace Chapel's construction timeline once Boot Barn's lease winds down and the building's use formally shifts to worship space.