Recreational Equipment, Inc. plans to open a new store in Westminster, Colo. at The Orchard Town Center in the spring of 2009.


The 27,000-square-foot, one-story store will be located at the northwest corner of I-25 and 144th Avenue. The store will include a camping gear rental department, a bike shop and space for community and non-profit classes, presentations and events.


In 2007, the co-op provided nearly $315,000 in financial contributions and/or gear donations to 16 Denver-area nonprofit organizations that work to increase participation in outdoor recreation and environmental stewardship. Examples include The Access Fund, City of Boulder, Colorado Mountain Club, Continental Divide Trail Alliance, International Mountain Bicycling Association, Leave No Trace and Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. REI also coordinated 20 service projects with more than 1,225 volunteers, who gave nearly 5,165 hours of service to maintain and preserve the natural spaces in the Denver metro area in the past year.

The co-op first entered Colorado with a store in Denver in 1983, which was moved to the restored 1901 Denver Tramway building in 2000 as one of the co-op's three flagship locations. Westminster will be the eighth REI location in Colorado, also joining the recently remodeled Boulder, Colo. prototype store, which opened in October 2007 and was designed to test retail design and green building concepts. The co-op currently has more than 237,000 active REI members in the Denver area, inlcuding 93,500 in the region that will be served by the Westminster store .


REI will hire approximately 60 employees at hiring clinics that will occur approximately two months prior to the store's opening.