Retailers haven’t abandoned brick-and-mortar locations just yet.

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest bookseller, appears poised to build a nearly 18,000-square-foot store at the First & Main Town Center, the sprawling retail complex that runs along Powers Boulevard, from North Carefree Circle to Constitution Avenue, on Colorado Springs’ east side, documents submitted to city government planners show.

The new retail building at First & Main would be constructed on a vacant parcel along Cinema Point — an interior shopping center road — and next to an existing Ulta Beauty store, according to the documents.

Previous documents submitted to city officials didn’t include the Barnes & Noble name and labeled the planned building at First & Main as “Cinema Point Retail.”

Updated documents submitted to the city last week, however, now show the planned retail building’s name as “Barnes & Noble.”

Bob Cope, a vice president with Norwood Development Group, the Colorado Springs real estate company that developed First & Main, said via email the company is seeking regulatory approvals for a new retail building at the shopping center, but a tenant hasn’t been determined.

Janine Flanigan, Barnes & Noble’s vice president of store planning and design, said via email she couldn’t confirm the retailer will add a new store in Colorado Springs, though she hoped “to be able to speak to something soon.”

She added that Barnes & Noble will continue to operate its two existing stores in the Springs — at 795 Citadel Drive East, near The Citadel mall, and at 1565 Briargate Blvd., across the street from the Chapel Hills Mall.

Over the last several years, many national retailers have downsized building footprints or slowed their pace of new construction because of fierce competition from Amazon and other online sellers. Many shoppers now purchase online and don’t bother to visit brick-and-mortar stores — changing consumer habits that also have prompted retailers to think twice about new locations.

Barnes & Noble, however, has launched an aggressive expansion in recent years.

It’s opened 57 stores nationwide in 2024 and plans to open approximately the same number in 2025, Flanigan said in her email. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble paid $1.8 million this year to purchase the bankrupt Tattered Cover, Denver’s longtime bookstore chain that had four remaining locations.

“Our real estate team is looking at opportunities in places in need of a bookstore,” she said. “In communities that may not have one, or in places that may have had a bookstore at one point, and no longer do. We’ve seen tremendous success in the communities where we’ve opened new stores.

“Since 2019, and with leadership of (CEO) James Daunt, Barnes & Noble has reversed a down trending in sales and we’ve been quite successful,” Flanigan added. “We will have opened more stores in a single year, than we have in the last (10) combined. As part of the opening strategy, we are opening different size stores. We opened stores from 4,000 square feet to 35,000 square feet.

The open-air First & Main, with roughly 1.4 million square feet of space, is the city’s largest retail complex — bigger than either the enclosed Chapel Hills or Citadel malls.

If Barnes & Noble expands to First & Main, it would join dozens of national retailers and restaurants, including Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, J.C. Penney, Target, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, PetSmart, Skechers, In-N-Out Burger, Red Lobster, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, Panera Bread and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews.

First & Main also is home to a Cinemark movie theater complex, a Holiday Inn Express, a Residence Inn and several service-oriented businesses.