A 13,000-square-foot L.L.Bean store is under construction at The Promenade Shops at Briargate in northern Colorado Springs, with an opening targeted for late October 2026. The store will take Suite 611 at 1925 Briargate Parkway, and it will be only the second L.L.Bean location in Colorado.
The new outpost is moving into space formerly occupied by The Container Store, which closed in April 2026 after the site underwent a $2 million renovation, according to a Facebook post cited by WhatNow. The Container Store vacated the site early in the year, and the space was re-leased and permitted for L.L.Bean within months, reflecting how quickly retail space moves in the corridor.
Per L.L.Bean's own listing, the store will carry men's and women's apparel, outerwear and fleece, active and casual footwear, camping and hiking gear, fishing equipment, luggage and travel items, home accessories, pet supplies and accessories, seasonal outdoor furniture and hammocks, and pieces from the company's Signature Collection. L.L.Bean is inviting shoppers to sign up for updates ahead of the opening, WhatNow reports. The company also offers outdoor discovery programs, including expert-led courses, tours and trips, as part of its broader outdoor equipment, bags, travel gear, home goods, clothing and accessories business.
A Second Foothold in Colorado, More Than a Decade Later
L.L.Bean's arrival in Colorado Springs comes 12 years after the company opened its first Colorado store in November 2014 at the Park Meadows Retail Resort in Lone Tree — at the time, its westernmost location, according to a PRWeb release. That store was also 13,000 square feet, and the company said at the time it was expanding into Colorado to tap into the state's high rate of outdoor participation.
L.L.Bean traces back to 1912, when founder Leon Leonwood Bean began the company with hunting boots, according to WhatNow. That heritage has since grown into what the company describes as a nationally recognized outdoor retail business known for products like its Bean Boots.
Colorado Springs Joins a National Expansion Push
The Briargate store is part of a broader 2026 expansion that has L.L.Bean opening in eight U.S. cities this year, including Huntsville, Alabama; Franklin, Tennessee; Beavercreek, Ohio; and Naperville, Illinois, according to Retail Dive. The company opened seven new stores in 2025 before greenlighting eight more for this year, and the 2026 expansion brings its total footprint to 76 stores across 21 states. Retail Dive reports L.L.Bean plans to open another eight to 10 stores in 2027, continuing a pattern of targeting high-growth suburban and regional shopping centers.
Hoodline has tracked several stops on that expansion trail this year, including new stores in Overland Park's Bluhawk and Maple Grove, Minnesota, along with earlier moves into Franklin, Tennessee, and Naperville, Illinois. The retail push is running alongside a separate corporate investment: L.L.Bean is completing a $50 million multi-year renovation of its flagship retail campus in Freeport, Maine, according to SGB Media, with that campus debut set for fall 2026 and the flagship site drawing more than 3 million visitors annually.
Landing in a Retail Corridor With Deep Pockets and Deep Competition
The Promenade Shops at Briargate sits on roughly 30 acres along I-25 and already counts outdoor brand Fjällräven among its tenants, which opened a 2,950-square-foot store there in 2022, per Mile High CRE. The center changed hands recently too — Hines Global Income Trust sold the 236,500-square-foot property for $150.7 million in March 2026, having bought it in September 2019 for $93.2 million.
L.L.Bean will be entering a corridor already dominated by outdoor retail heavyweights. Nearby at Interquest Marketplace, Scheels opened a 220,000-square-foot sporting goods store in 2021 after the city approved a $16.2 million sales tax incentive agreement, according to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, with Scheels investing $84 million to build the destination store. That leaves L.L.Bean competing directly for market share against both a big-box giant and specialty outdoor shops in an already crowded northern Colorado Springs retail zone.
Still, the state's outdoor economy gives retailers plenty of reason to bet on Colorado shoppers. Outdoor recreation generated $18.1 billion in economic output in Colorado in 2024, accounting for 3.3% of the state's GDP and ranking the state 10th nationwide for outdoor economy size, according to Axios. Federal data cited in that report shows the sector grew 2% year-over-year in the state.
The physical expansion also supports L.L.Bean's e-commerce arm, which generates more than $1 billion in annual sales from over 5.5 million active digital customers, per Retail Dive. Company executives have pointed to physical stores as a way to meet online customers in person, turning digital shoppers into in-store regulars in markets like Colorado Springs, where the outdoor gear category is already fiercely contested.
