Mendocino Farms served its first sandwich in Colorado Springs on September 27, inside the Promenade Shops at Briargate. A few hundred feet away, on the Pikes Peak Patio, the free Thursday movie series that's run there since early September has one screening left before it closes out for the year. Both things are happening at the same shopping center in the same stretch of weeks, and they don't balance each other out. Five retail openings or expansions are either complete or on the way to the Promenade this fall. Exactly one thing on that same property is packing up.
For anyone living in Briargate or neighboring Pine Creek, who share this stretch of Briargate Parkway as their closest retail and dining corridor, that imbalance is worth naming directly. This isn't a neighborhood with two rhythms in parallel. It's one shopping center adding far more than it's letting go, and the fall calendar only makes sense once you see which side of that ledger each thing belongs on.
The One Thing Leaving
Movies Under the Mountains is a free Thursday series held on the Pikes Peak Patio, next to Ted's Montana Grill at the Promenade Shops. It opened its fall slate on September 10 with Hoppers, followed with Zootopia 2 on September 17 and Minecraft on September 24. The series is set to close out with a Halloween-themed screening of Hocus Pocus, complete with a cider and hot chocolate bar. Once that showing wraps, the patio goes quiet on movie nights until next September.
That's the entire "closing" column for the Promenade this fall. One recurring program, four dated screenings, and a finish line already on the calendar.
Five Retail Updates
Everything else at the Promenade is moving in the opposite direction. Mendocino Farms opened on September 27 at 1765 Briargate Parkway, Suite 807, serving sandwiches, salads, wraps, and soups daily from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. It's the brand's first Colorado Springs location.
A report by Springs Magazine quotes Lara Silversmith, director of leasing strategy at Asana Partners, the firm that owns the shopping center, on the broader push:
"These openings and expansions reinforce The Shops as the region's premier lifestyle destination while giving guests even more reasons to shop, dine and gather throughout the year."
That push includes an Apple store that has already expanded into a larger footprint, with L.L.Bean set to debut in the fourth quarter, American Eagle bringing its denim and casual apparel before year-end, and Kendra Scott adding its jewelry and accessories on a similar timeline. The remaining openings are still filling in.
The Ledger, Side by Side
| What | Status | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Movies Under the Mountains | Closing | Wraps with a Halloween-themed Hocus Pocus screening |
| Mendocino Farms | Open | Opened September 27 |
| Apple | Open | Already expanded into a larger space |
| L.L.Bean | Arriving | Fourth quarter of 2026 |
| American Eagle | Arriving | Before year-end |
| Kendra Scott | Arriving | Before year-end |
Read down that list and one column is nearly empty. Five entries are either already open or still arriving. One is winding down. That's not a coincidence of timing, it's how a shopping center actually behaves when it's in a leasing cycle: national retailers sign, build out, and open on their own schedule, regardless of season, while a seasonal program like a Thursday movie series runs on a calendar that has to end somewhere.
Why the Imbalance Matters
Briargate and Pine Creek both treat this stretch of Briargate Parkway as their nearest hub for dining and shopping, which means residents of both feel this same lopsided fall whether they're picking up a sandwich or catching the last movie night. The mistake is assuming the two sides of that ledger move at the same pace. They don't. A retail opening on a leasing timeline will happen when the buildout is done, whether that's this month or in January. A seasonal program tied to a start and end date on a flyer does not get that flexibility. Miss the last screening and the next chance is next September.
Reading the Rest of the Fall
If the movie series is on your list, the math is simple: one screening left, a Halloween-themed Hocus Pocus night with a cider bar, and then the patio is done with films until next year.
The retail side carries no such urgency. L.L.Bean, American Eagle, and Kendra Scott are all still weeks out, and the Promenade's own site will post exact dates as each one gets closer. There's no version of this fall where showing up in December means missing the boot selection or the earrings.
What's useful here isn't a list of things happening at a shopping center. It's knowing which column each one sits in before you plan a Thursday night or a weekend errand around it.
If you're weighing what's next for your own place in Briargate or Pine Creek, whether that's this season or down the road, The Lauber Group knows this stretch of the city block by block, including which parts of the calendar are worth building a weekend around.
