If you've mentioned the new Target to a neighbor this year, you've probably had the conversation twice. Once in April, when Mayor Mitch LaKind confirmed the anchor tenants for a new shopping center off I-25. Again in September, when the county issued building permits and local news covered it as if it were breaking for the first time. It wasn't. It was the same project, six months further along, and still more than a year from opening its doors.
That gap between "announced" and "open" is the story most people in Monument are missing right now. Some of what's been in the headlines this year is already real and walkable. Some of it is a construction timeline that stretches into 2027. Knowing which is which changes how you plan your errands this fall versus how you plan them next year.
What's Actually Open Right Now
Start with what you can drive to today. On August 3, 2026, a new Dairy Queen opened at 16577 Cinematic View in Monument. It's the second El Paso County location for owners who aren't outside investors chasing a franchise territory. Karlye Brooks, one of the owner-operators, grew up in Monument and graduated from the local high school. "We are excited to now be opening a business here," Brooks said in a press release announcing the opening, describing the goal as creating a space where neighbors could gather.
That's a small thing next to a 225,000-square-foot shopping center, but it's the kind of small thing that actually changed this summer while the bigger project was still moving through permitting. The Dairy Queen team has also said it plans to work with local schools on community events, which is worth watching if you have kids in the district.
Across the highway from the future Target site, a mini golf course is currently under construction, according to reporting on the Target permits in early September. No opening date has been confirmed yet, but it's one more sign that the corridor's near-term changes are showing up in smaller, faster-moving projects while the anchor retail center is still mid-build.
The Target You've Heard About Twice, Explained
Here's where the timeline gets confusing if you've only caught fragments of the story. In April 2026, Mayor LaKind told KKTV that a more than 225,000-square-foot shopping center called Legacy at Jackson Landing would rise on 30 acres near I-25 and Baptist Road, just south of the existing Home Depot. He confirmed the anchor list at that point: Target, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Chick-fil-A and Firehouse Subs, with additional space still being leased.
Then in early September, the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department announced it had issued permits for a 129,000-square-foot store on the east side of I-25 near Baptist Road and Jackson Creek Parkway, a $22.3 million project. That's the Target. Same project, same interchange, just a later procedural milestone getting covered as its own news cycle. If you felt like you'd heard this before, you had.
Construction on the broader Legacy at Jackson Landing site had already begun by April, and the developer's own timeline points to a grand opening in October 2027. That's not a delay or a red flag. It's a normal build-out schedule for a shopping center of that scale. But it does mean the retail center most people associate with "Target is coming to Monument" is still more than a year out from actually opening, even though the news about it keeps arriving in waves.
What's Confirmed for the Corridor
Based on the developer's public statements and town reporting, here's what's locked in for Legacy at Jackson Landing:
- Target, as the primary anchor, in a 129,000-square-foot store
- Marshalls and HomeGoods, both confirmed by the mayor in April 2026
- Chick-fil-A and Firehouse Subs, rounding out the confirmed dining options
- Additional leasable space that Legacy Development Partners has said it's actively working to fill
The site sits just south of the existing Monument Marketplace, which is already anchored by Home Depot, Walmart and Kohl's. So the practical effect, once it opens, is less about introducing a shopping district to Monument and more about doubling down on the one that already exists along that stretch of the interstate.
Why the Corridor Is Moving This Fast
It helps to understand that this retail push isn't happening in isolation. Just up the road in the Falcon Commerce Center, ACCO Engineered Systems announced a $36 million expansion in July 2026, bringing up to 135 jobs at an average wage north of $87,000 a year. That's a separate, industrial side of Monument's growth story, but it points to the same underlying pattern: this stretch of I-25 has become a magnet for both commercial investment and new employers, and the retail build-out is arriving alongside that, not ahead of it or behind it.
The Town of Monument also approved a 10.3-acre mixed-use business park along the interstate corridor in January 2026, part of a broader pattern of development on the west side of I-25 that the town has tried to keep visually low-profile against the mountain backdrop. None of that is retail you'll shop at, but it's useful context for why "Monument is growing" has felt like a constant headline this year rather than a single event.
What Changes Now, and What Doesn't Yet
If you live in Monument, here's the practical version. Dairy Queen is open today, run by people with roots in this town. The mini golf course is visibly under construction, so you'll likely see it take shape over the coming months. The Target, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Chick-fil-A and Firehouse Subs are real, funded and permitted, but they're building toward an October 2027 opening, which means most of next year is still going to look like construction fencing off Baptist Road rather than a ribbon cutting.
Not everyone in town is greeting this the same way. One resident told KKTV she was glad to finally have shopping options closer to home instead of driving into Colorado Springs or Denver for basics. Another, who has lived in the area more than five decades, said she understood the growth but wasn't looking forward to it, and joked about moving to Palmer Lake instead. Both reactions are part of the same story. The corridor is changing quickly enough that longtime residents and newer arrivals are experiencing it differently, and that tension is worth knowing about even if you're not the one making the decision on how the land gets used.
For now, the honest read is this: what's already open in Monument is small and locally owned. What's coming is large and corporate, and it's still a year away. Plan your Saturday around the Dairy Queen. Plan your patience around the Target.
If you're watching how this kind of growth reshapes a town you already call home, or you're weighing what it means for a property you own along that corridor, Drake Guidry has been tracking Monument's market up close, not from a press release. Reach out anytime you want a straight read on what a development like this actually means for your street, your commute, or your home's setting on the Front Range.
