King Soopers' new store, QuikTrip's arrival, In-N-Out's third location: Updates on Colorado Springs-area projects (2024)

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to show the estimated valuation of the manufacturing plant being constructed by high-tech company Entegris is $115 million, according to the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.

Very little stays the same these days in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region.

The area's population growth — projected by the Colorado State Demography Office to hit 1 million people in El Paso County in about 25 years —and the city's rankings by U.S. News & World Report and other publications as a desirable place to live, work and do business, have led to a steady stream of new stores, restaurants and business expansions.

Here’s a look at the status of some of the projects The Gazette has reported on over the past year or so:

King Soopers continues its threefold expansion.The grocery chain, part of the Ohio-based Kroger brand, is poised to open a store next month as part of its plan to add three outlets that will anchor a trio of shopping centers in various stages of development in the area.

A King Soopers store nearing completion at the Falcon Marketplace shopping center in unincorporated Falcon, northwest of Woodmen and Meridian roads and just outside Colorado Springs, is scheduled to open Jan. 24, grocery spokeswoman Jessica Trowbridge said last week via email.

The new King Soopers will be a larger-format marketplace store; at 123,000 square feet, it will be roughly twice the size of a traditional King Soopers and will sell clothing, dinnerware, small appliances and other items to go with full lines of groceries.

King Soopers will be one of the final pieces at Falcon Marketplace, where Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Slim Chickens, Panda Express, Dutch Bros Coffee, Super Star Car Wash and Discount Tires already have opened.

Construction of a Chipotle Mexican Grill is nearing completion at Falcon Marketplace and will open "in the next month or so," a Chipotle spokeswoman said via email. Goodwill of Colorado, meanwhile, plans a roughly 23,000-square-foot store immediately west of King Soopers.

"Our theories were correct that there's just unmet demand for shopping and dining and other services in this community," said Russell Perkins,a principal with Evergreen Devco, an Arizona real estate company that’s developing Falcon Marketplace. "All the tenants that have opened thus far have expressed that they're very, very happy with how things are going so far.

"We can't wait for King Soopers to open," he added.

On Tuesday, King Soopers will break ground on another marketplace store, to be built southwest of Colorado 83 and North Gate Boulevard in northern Colorado Springs, Trowbridge said. She didn't say when the store would open, but its debut probably would be at least a year away, based on the pace of construction at the Falcon Marketplace store.

The northern Colorado Springs store will anchor a retail center being developed by the Barclay Group, a real estate company also based in Arizona. The center will be built as part of Flying Horse, an upscale, 1,500-acre project developed by Colorado Springs-based Classic Cos.

Two quick-service restaurants, a bank, a pair of multitenant retail buildings and a standalone office/retail building are envisioned at the shopping center, according to a marketing brochure Barclay has posted on its website.

Brett Sheets, Barclay's senior vice president of leasing, said there's strong interest in the shopping center, though he declined to identify retailers or restaurants that might be looking at the site.

The shopping center is targeted to open in the fourth quarter of 2024, Sheets said.

"Great demographics in a great area," Sheets said. "It's an area that needed a King Soopers. ... It makes it very valuable for all the multitenant QSRs (quick-serve restaurants) and all the other guys to go right in front of a King Soopers."

A third King Soopers store is planned for the Mesa Ridge Marketplace shopping center, which will be built southeast of Mesa Ridge Parkway and Syracuse Street in Fountain. That project also is being developed by Evergreen Devco as part of a joint venture with a California group that had owned the property.

King Soopers expects the Fountain store to open in 2025, spokeswoman Rhonda Remy said via email. She didn't provide a groundbreaking date.

American Furniture Warehouse still eyes a second Springs location.In 2021, American Furniture Warehouse — based in suburban Denver and one of the state's largest furniture retailers — said it would build a 355,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse on 25 acres southeast of Powers Boulevard and Woodmen Road on Colorado Springs' northeast side.

Two years later, nothing has happened on the site. But while its plans have been delayed, they haven't changed; American Furniture Warehouse still is coming to Powers Boulevard.

"We sure are," said Nolan Morrison, a real estate and development executive with the retailer.

The retailer chose to pursue expansions in Arizona before the new project in Colorado Springs, where an existing store already serves the area, Morrison said. Since 1999, American Furniture Warehouse has operated a 145,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse west of Interstate 25 and Fillmore Street on the city's northwest side.

"We have a couple of other projects we put in front of that," Morrison said of the Powers Boulevard expansion. "We have a really successful store there already. So, the second store is going to be able to distribute products to the consumer faster and better and quicker for us. But that's a lower need for us because the consumer still has a store there. If we didn't have a store there now, it (the Powers Boulevard location) would be much higher on the list."

American Furniture Warehouse now probably won't break ground on the Powers store and warehouse until early 2025, he said.

In-N-Out is all in on a third location.In-N-Out Burger, the popular California-based chain that expanded to Colorado three years ago, opened its first Colorado Springs restaurant in November 2020 and a second a year later.

Now, roughly 18 months after submitting a proposal to city government officials for a third restaurant at 495 Garden of the Gods Road, just west of Interstate 25 on the Springs' northwest side, In-N-Out is moving ahead on the location.

Last month, In-N-Out signed an agreement to lease the 1.34-acre site on Garden of the Gods Road, where it plans to demolish a building that housed an Applebee's restaurant that closed in late November. In its place, In-N-Out plans to construct a 3,860-square-foot restaurant, with 84 indoor seats, patio seating and a drive-thru — similar to its first two Springs locations.

Mike Abbate, In-N-Out's assistant vice president of real estate and development, said via email said the restaurant chain hopes "to start construction shortly." He added it's too soon to say when the Garden of the Gods Road location will open, though he said that restaurants normally take about eight to nine months to complete after construction begins.

If construction begins soon, the In-N-Out on Garden of the Gods Road could open in late summer or early fall of 2024, based on the eight- to nine-month timetable.

QuikTrip becomes latest convenience store option.Tulsa-based QuikTrip —which has just over 1,000 convenience stores in 17 states, including seven in the Denver area and northern Colorado —will debut in the Pikes Peak region when it opens Dec. 21 at 1525 W. Baptist Road in Monument, just west of Interstate 25, Michael Junk, manager of public and government affairs, said via email.

QuikTrip's store will be aroughly 8,200-square-foot, larger format travel center that will accommodate trucks as well as cars; the chain introduced the travel-center concept a few years ago to serve heavily traveled areas and roadways.

QuikTrip also is eyeing additional locations for its more traditional, roughly 5,300-square-foot stores.

The chain submitted a proposal this year to city government officials that showed it had contracted to purchase the aging Polo Center shopping center, northeast of Academy and Palmer Park boulevards; the shopping center would be torn down to make way for a store, according to QuikTrip's proposal.

QuikTrip also has said it's contracted to buy a small office building at Academy and Flintridge Drive that would be demolished in favor of one of tis convenience stores, according to another submittal the chain has made to the city.

El Paso County land records show QuikTrip hasn't yet purchased either site.

"We are working through the permitting process on a number of locations in Colorado Springs, and actively identifying additional locations in and around the city as we work to build our presence in Colorado," Junk said in his email, when asked about the status of the proposed store sites at Academy and Palmer Park and Academy and Flintridge.

The day the music died.Independent Records has closed permanently after 45 years, says owner Lewis Lambert.

The Colorado Springs-based business —popular for decades as a home for records, videos, gifts, T-shirts, smoking accessories and other items —shut its doors Sept. 30 at 195 N. Academy Blvd.

At the time, Lambert said two longtime employees were seeking financing to purchase the business, while other potential buyers were possible. The employees, however, were unable to come up with their financing and a potential Denver-area buyer also decided against making a bid, he said.

"It's closed for good," said Lambert.

It would have been nice if the employees had succeeded, but assembling the necessary financing is difficult, he said.

"It takes hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate an operation like this," Lambert said. "A lot of capital, a lot of capital. Just based on the cost of inventory, a few hundred thousand to a half-million.

"And that's all relative to what kind of operation you want," he said. "If you just want a little 1,000-square-foot used record store, niche store, hey, those are a dime a dozen. But to compete against your Walmarts and Entertainmarts and your Targets, your nationals and regionals, you know, it was just something we've done for 45 years."

Lambert and his older brother, Orville, had launched Independent Records in 1978 after they moved to Colorado from California. The business grew to several locations in the Springs and Pueblo, relying on what the Lamberts called lifestyle products— smoking paraphernalia and the like— to complement record sales.

Financial troubles over the last several yearsled to the closure of most of Independent Records' locations and its move from its original store on Platte Avenue to Academy Boulevard.

Orville Lambert, who had taken over as sole owner of Independent Records the past few years, died Aug. 24 after a short illness.

Lewis Lambert said he's sold the store's inventory of records, CDs and other merchandise, as well as light fixtures, album and vinyl racks and other items. He put some leftover items in the store parking lot for passersby to grab.

It's still possible that someone might buy the Independent Records name, Lambert said.

"There's some people that relate to the value of the name in the market," he said. "They could maybe have an existing business and incorporate it into the existing business or vice versa. Who knows. The name is kind of (iconic) in the music industry. Independent Records ... personifies the dying breed of independent operators. Any music record store that is referred to as independent, they're not part of a chain or a national online operation."

Lambert said he was gratified by the store's success over the years.

"I'm 78 years old," he said. "I've only done retail music for 53 years. So it's been an endeavor. It's been a love. I've always enjoyed it. I've always been an independent entrepreneur. How many retail record store people do you know? We're an endangered species. Always have been."

Massive manufacturing plant underway in northwest Colorado Springs.Massachusetts-based Entegris, a global supplier of electronic materials for semiconductor makers and other industries, broke ground in June on what it calls a "manufacturing center of excellence" on 88 acres the company purchased at 301 S. Rockrimmon Blvd. The company paid $30 million that month to purchase the land from a limited liability company controlled Norwood Development Group and Classic Cos., two of the city's biggest real estate companies, El Paso County land records show.

An initial building permit was pulled in October for the project, whose estimated valuation is $115 million, according to Pikes Peak Regional Building Department records; construction then was launched on what the company says will be a $200 million, 130,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at the site.

The building will be about 30% larger than originally planned because of strong demand for semiconductor filtration products that will be produced at the facility, said Bill Shaner, Entegris' president of Advanced Materials Handling.

The plant, which will employ 100 to 200 people, remains on track for completion in the fourth quarter of 2024, he said.

It's the first phase of a massive manufacturing and tech project that will include at least two more buildings and probably another 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space envisioned to be constructed over the next several years, Shaner said.

The need for the additional space will depend on the semiconductor industry's growth, he said.

"This is our big move to have more regional manufacturing in North America," Shaner said. "It will be tied to some of our customers' plans on continued expansion in the U.S."

Entegris announced its manufacturing center in December 2022, and estimated at the time the project could total $600 million with as many as 600 jobs when completed.

The company received commitments of nearly $130 million in financial incentives from the Colorado Economic Development Commission, Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, the city of Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado Springs Utilities, the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority.

The various governments and business groups have followed through on their financial pledges, Shaner said.

"Everything's really gone along as planned from our groundbreaking," Shaner said. "We're really happy about that and that's really reinforced our decision to be based in Colorado Springs (with the manufacturing operation)."

Specialty grocer still aims to expand to northern Colorado Springs. H Mart, the Korean- and Asian-themed grocery chain founded and based on the East Coast, continues its plan to build a 29,000-square-foot store in the Victory Ridge development, southeast of InterQuest and Voyager parkways on the city's far north side.

An H Mart entity paid $1.8 million in March 2022 to purchase 2.6 acres at Victory Ridge for the store site.

BrendonChoi, H Mart's general affairs manager for its Springs location and existing stores in Aurora and Westminster, said the grocer continues to seek government regulatory approvals for the store.

"It's still in process and we have no change in the plans," he said.

"It's just a matter of how quickly those processes get done," Choi added. "It's not really going quick, let's just put it that way."

Once construction begins, the store will take about a year to build, he said.

"Our intention is fully dedicated in creating another (grocery) store over at the location," Choi said. "Hopefully, we can serve the community that way."