King Soopers will continue its aggressive expansion in the Pikes Peak region this week when the grocery chain opens its newest store in the Flying Horse development on Colorado Springs’ far north side.

The store is scheduled to debut at 9 a.m. Wednesday southwest of Colorado 83 and North Gate Boulevard and will anchor the new 21-acre Marketplace at Flying Horse shopping center at the site.

King Soopers, based in Denver and part of the Ohio-based Kroger chain, also opened a store in January 2024 in the unincorporated Falcon area northeast of Colorado Springs. It’s also launched construction of another store in Fountain, south of the Springs, that’s targeted to open in mid to late summer, a company spokeswoman has said.

The new King Soopers in Flying Horse, along with the Falcon and Fountain locations, are larger-format marketplace stores — about twice the size of the grocery chain’s traditional 65,000-square-foot stores.

In addition to full lines of groceries, meat and produce, the marketplace stores sell dinnerware, clothing, shoes and small appliances, among other items. Amenities at the 118,000-square-foot Flying Horse store will include a Starbucks, a Murray’s cheese shop, a fuel station and a pharmacy with a drive-thru, King Soopers officials have said.

The concept behind the larger marketplace stores, King Soopers officials have said, is to provide greater convenience for shoppers.

The arrival of King Soopers brings a much-in-demand, full-service grocery to Flying Horse, the upscale development that covers about 1,500 acres in northern Colorado Springs and that was annexed by the city in 2003.

Developed by Classic Cos., one of the city’s largest homebuilders and real estate developers, Flying Horse now has about 5,000 residents and roughly 2,400 residences, said Classic CEO Doug Stimple.

“Really, we’re a bit of a grocery desert up there,” he said. “The grocery stores that people go to are down off of Briargate (Parkway) or they’re up in Monument. So, honestly, it’s probably been the No. 1 requested item since 2010, is for a grocery store.

“We’ve always envisioned it in our master plan, that we would have a grocery anchored store there,” Stimple said. “It took a long time to come to fruition as they tend to do, but I think people are very excited about it and the level of convenience.”

King Soopers and the shopping center won’t just serve Flying Horse; expect shoppers to come from residential developments to the south and north, as well as from Black Forest, the nearby unincorporated area of El Paso County.

“Their (King Soopers) range radius is from 5-plus miles consistently, and then of course you’ll get more than that,” Stimple said. “It’s going to serve much more than the Flying Horse population. But it will be a very convenient opportunity for the residents of Flying Horse to basically not have to leave their neighborhood to shop.”

The Marketplace at Flying Horse — developed by the Arizona-based Barclay Group, a residential and commercial real estate company with projects in 14 states, its website shows — also will have a handful of multi-tenant and stand-alone retail and commercial buildings with an assortment of users.

So far, they include Great Clips, Shape Nail Lounge, a Black Rock Coffee Bar and a World of Sourdough sandwich shop, according to the Barclay website and signs posted on storefronts.

Leasing and demand for retail space and stand-alone buildings have been strong at the Marketplace at Flying Horse, said Patrick Kerscher, a senior managing director with brokerage Colorado Springs Commercial who’s marketing the Marketplace at Flying Horse with colleague Dan Rodriguez.

Higher household incomes and other demographics of the Flying Horse development and surrounding areas are appealing to regional and national brands, Kerscher said, while King Soopers is a highly desirable anchor for retailers, restaurants and service-oriented businesses.

“It serves an underserved market,” Kerscher said of the new Kings Soopers. “Folks had to come down to Briargate for a full-sized grocer. Sprouts (in the nearby Northgate Plaza) is obviously an option up there, but there were limited full-sized grocers and Kings meets that needs. They were excited about it because it will relieve some of the pressure off their Briargate (Parkway) store, which is a smaller footprint than what you’re going to see up at Flying Horse.”