Drive past the east end of The Promenade Shops at Briargate this month and you'll see construction paper taped over the windows where The Container Store used to be. That box sat quiet most of the summer. Now the permits are pulled, the remodel is underway, and the answer to what's replacing it says more about where this shopping center is headed than most people walking through it realize.
L.L.Bean is moving in. Not a pop-up, not a regional knockoff, the actual Maine-based outdoor retailer known for its Bean Boots, taking a 13,000-square-foot space at 1925 Briargate Parkway, Suite 611. The opening is targeted for late October 2026.
What actually happened to the Container Store
The Container Store vacated the space early in 2026 and formally closed its doors in April. According to permit records with the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, the site is undergoing a $2 million remodel to become the new L.L.Bean location, a project that moved from empty box to permitted build-out within months. That pace is worth noting on its own. Retail space at this corridor doesn't sit dark for long, and a national outdoor brand had a lease signed and a construction crew inside before most shoppers had finished wondering what happened to their organization aisle.
When it opens, the store will carry the full L.L.Bean assortment residents would otherwise have to drive to Lone Tree or order online to get: men's and women's apparel, outerwear and fleece, hiking and camping gear, fishing equipment, footwear, luggage, pet supplies, home accessories, and the brand's Signature Collection line. It's the kind of inventory built for a market that spends its weekends on trails and its winters figuring out how to dress for them, which happens to describe a lot of the Pikes Peak region.
This isn't the first outdoor brand to land here, and that's the point
If L.L.Bean were an isolated tenant swap, it would just be news. It isn't isolated. Fjällräven, the Swedish outdoor gear brand recognizable by its fox logo and canvas backpacks, opened a 2,950-square-foot store at the same shopping center back in 2022. Two outdoor-specialty retailers have chosen the same open-air center four years apart. Together, they add to the Promenade's outdoor-retail presence.
The Colorado math on this store makes the pattern even clearer. L.L.Bean opened its first Colorado location in November 2014 at Park Meadows in Lone Tree, a 13,000-square-foot store that was, at the time, the company's westernmost location in the country. The planned second Colorado store is expected to open nearly twelve years after the first.
| Location | Opening date | Square Footage | Colorado Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Park Meadows, Lone Tree | November 2014 | 13,000 sq ft | First Colorado store |
| The Promenade Shops at Briargate | Late October 2026 | 13,000 sq ft | Second Colorado store |
The planned Briargate store will match Park Meadows at 13,000 square feet, with an opening expected nearly twelve years after the first Colorado location. L.L.Bean chose Briargate for its second Colorado store, a full-size location rather than a smaller-format outpost.
The center changed hands in March 2026
The Promenade Shops at Briargate changed hands in March 2026. Hines Global Income Trust sold the 236,500-square-foot center for $150.7 million, having bought it for $93.2 million back in September 2019. That's a jump of more than $57 million in roughly six and a half years for the same physical property, and it closed just months before construction started on the L.L.Bean build-out.
Sale prices on retail centers reflect what buyers believe about future rent growth and tenant demand, not just current occupancy. The L.L.Bean lease adds to the center's changing tenant mix.
What this looks like when you're actually there this fall
For anyone who already treats the Promenade as a regular stop, here's the practical version. The L.L.Bean space sits on the east edge of the center, in the same general stretch where Fjällräven already anchors the outdoor-brand cluster. Construction should wrap in time for a late October opening, which puts the debut right around when Colorado Springs starts layering up for real. If you've already found the aquarium inside Chapel Hills Mall or caught a set on the Friday concert patio this year, this is one more stop worth adding to the rotation once the doors open.
The bigger shift is less about one store and more about what's quietly happening to this shopping center's identity. A few years ago, the Promenade was P.F. Chang's, Pottery Barn, and Banana Republic anchoring a fairly standard suburban lifestyle center. Once L.L.Bean opens, it will be a place where you can outfit a Barr Trail hike at Fjällräven, restock camp gear at L.L.Bean, and grab dinner before heading home, all within the same parking lot. For now, Fjällräven is the established outdoor retailer in that stretch, with L.L.Bean still slated to join it.
If you live in Briargate, you already knew the Container Store closed. What you might not have connected is that its replacement, the ownership sale that happened months before construction started, and the Fjällräven store that's been there since 2022 are all pieces of the same story: this shopping center may be becoming the north side's outdoor-retail anchor.
Whether you're watching this corner of Briargate for the shopping or simply because you live nearby and like knowing what's changing on your own streets, it's worth keeping an eye on what leases next in that same stretch of the center. Patterns like this rarely stop at two.
For more on what's shaping the neighborhoods across Colorado Springs, Monument, and the Pikes Peak region, connect with Innovative Moves. Let's Connect.
