Optopolis Reports - Retail News

[View of the new Plato's Closet location's signage - Optopolis]  Another unexpected find when driving down Dell Range Blvd and vicinity, it seems Plato's Closet of Cheyenne has decided to shift north of Dell Range! Looking at Plato's Closet's old location Plato's Closet appears to have first opened in Cheyenne around the turn of the 2010s near Mongolian Grill; Google Street View confirms they opened in this space between 2007 and 2011, and their local Face Book page displays 2010 for the date of the creation of the local store's page. [Plato's in 2007 compared to 2011 - Google Maps Street View] At the moment it's unclear what previous tenant(s) were in this building before Plato's Closet, especially seeing the entire building was built in 2002 according to the property assessor. (If you know what tenants were here before Plato's Closet, your help in identifying what the tenant(s) was/were in the comments of this post would be greatly appreci...

[A snowy day at the soon-to-be FedEx Office near IHOP on Dell Range - Optopolis] On a recent snowy, windy day, a pass down Dell Range revealed an unexpected find! This FedEx Office is in the process of renovating this vacant space near IHOP (next to Papa John's). What little history of this space is known at Optopolis It should be clarified the space you are looking at is directly between China Buffet and Papa John's. The amount of history available on this space's previous tenants is seemingly rather limited on the web. Thanks to a live-streamed walk-by of this space earlier this year on the Optopolis YouTube channel, it is clear the most recent tenant was most likely some kind of liquor store, with a label saying "we ID," and "Budweiser Hours" on the door. It's also appears it has been vacant since at least 2011 as Google Street View reveals. [A snapshot of the Budweiser logo that was posted on the door and still visible earlier this year - Optopol...

[Dollar General as seen from the NE corner of the property on US-30 - Optopolis]  In less than two years, Dollar General has gone from no Wyoming locations to four; the most recent one is here in Cheyenne, making a total of two stores in the capital city! Dollar General enters Wyoming market Dollar General announced the grand opening of its first Wyoming DG store in 2020, located in Pine Bluffs. According to their website , this made the 45th state in which they have stores residing. In that same year, Dollar General would open two more locations in the state of Wyoming; the second Wyoming DG store opened in Laramie and the third at the south end of Cheyenne. All of these stores seemed to pop up very quickly with Cheyenne's at-the-time-future store going from being a demolished and vacant lot in May 2020 to being built and ready to go as a new store in July 2020, as videos from Standby News' YouTube channel further confirm. [Top: Dollar General in Pine Bluffs - Google Maps Str...

[A view of Cheyenne's new Sears Hometown with the signage up - Optopolis] Who remembers when Cheyenne had a full-line Sears? It seems Sears is making a comeback to Cheyenne as a Hometown store, set to open in the Cheyenne Plaza! History of Sears in Cheyenne For those unfamiliar, Cheyenne's original Sears department store started in the space now occupied by 2 Doors Down, a local dine-in restaurant still thriving today in Downtown Cheyenne. At the turn of the 1980s, Sears relocated to the Frontier Mall. Sears would open on October 8, 1980 as confirmed by a newspaper published that day from The Wyoming Eagle. This was several months before the mall opened in March 1981. [Sears at Frontier Mall during 2017 when it was still open - Google Maps] Unfortunately, that Sears announced it would liquidate toward the end of 2017, closing in January 2018, less than a year after Cheyenne's last Kmart closed. The department store side of Sears has slowly been deteriorating, with founder E...

[Neon Freddy's sign at Laramie's Freddy's - Optopolis] What has been a rumor for months has now been confirmed: Freddy's is planning to build a new location here in Cheyenne! [2nd in Wyoming!] Rumor has had it that Freddy's was planning to expand to Cheyenne as far back as spring 2021, although Freddy's website didn't (and still doesn't as of yet) display it as a future location. However, a search of Freddy's on the Cheyenne Planning and Development website reveals site plans have been submitted for a brand new Cheyenne location! Since the initial discovery of this detail here at Optopolis back in October, Cap City News has also very recently found further confirmation that Freddy's indeed was in the process of opening a location in Cheyenne according to Cap City's article . Although the address isn't obviously displayed in the main project view of the development website, the parcel number and site plan both confirm that this Freddy...

[A Dutch Bro's Coffee located in Colorado - Optopolis]  It seems that another drive thru coffee shop is set to open in Cheyenne! Site plans for Dutch Bro's Coffee have been added to the Cheyenne Planning and Development website at the location where Fernando's Mexican Grill, formerly branded as Rolando's Mexican Grill, stands today! History of the Fernando's building [A recent photo of Fernando's Mexican Grill - Optopolis] Anyone who pays lots of attention to building designs will likely recognize the façade that screams the fact this was a former Burger King. It was built in 1992 as a Burger King and closed sometime after the turn of the century, with a corridor plan from 2000 still referring to this building as Burger King. Tokyo Bowl (not to be confused with Tokyo Joe's) opened by 2007, but it closed by the mid-2010s. By 2017, Rolando's Mexican Grill opened up shop in the building, and in 2020, it began to rebrand as Fernando's Mexican Grill (alt...

[Spirit Halloween Banners hang on the once-occupied-by-Big Lots tenant - Optopolis]  Animatronics and setup Inside, you will find many animatronics setup in the display called "Halloween Factory." Included at the Cheyenne Spirit this year are Mr. Howl; Henry Hustle, Sitting Scarecrow, Buzzsaw, and Grim; Sam; and Harvester of Souls, Wacky Mole, and Evelyn Leech. All of these animatronics are displayed at various parts of this 'factory.' You can see them pictured below: [Various Animatronics at Spirit Halloween in Cheyenne, WY - Optopolis] [Mr. Howl Animatronic in front of the Halloween Factory - Optopolis] History of this space This tenant was built as part of the Cheyenne Plaza in 1981, apparently being occupied originally by some kind of grocery or drug store (if you know what stores were here originally, comment below). By 2001, it appeared to be occupied by MacFrugal's, a bargain brand bought out by Big Lots just in the late 90s. By 2002, it was rebranded to a ...

[Front of Thornton's Rite Aid before it was demolished - Google Maps Street View]  A recent visit to Thornton led to an unexpected discovery. Not only had this Rite Aid on the corner of E 104th Ave and Colorado Blvd been demolished, it also was already well into the process of being replaced with a brand new gas station! [A view from the SW corner of the soon-to-be Murphy USA - Optopolis] Some history behind this property Rite Aid #6330 was built at this location in 1998. It would seem that this location closed around the time Walgreens was buying Rite Aid stores throughout America in 2017; Google Maps Street view shows the signs were still up and cars were still in the parking lot until between July 2017 and July 2018, and the last public review left on Yelp is 07/12/2017 by Dezirae G . [Rite Aid as seen in Jul 2018 as abandoned after the signage had been taken down - Google Maps Street View] There is a strong possibility that needs further confirmation; there is a marker on Googl...

[A view of Cheyenne's Dell Range Location on a cold winter night in 2020 before renovation - Optopolis]  One of Cheyenne's Wendy's, the last location in town that still displayed the 80s/90s style of façade, began the process of a full scale renovation sometime over the last few months. Some History It happens this building is not original to Wendy's. It was built in 1995 as a Boston Market, a chain of "fast casual" restaurants that specialized in chicken. Seeing the style of façade Wendy's used, it's probable this Boston Market closed as a result of their 1998 bankruptcy. Although I am currently unaware of the exact day and year of open, the façade also suggests this location opened by 2000. The Renovation Since the photo at the top of this article had been taken, they'd done some minor repainting around the top edge of the building as seen below. The sign had also been replaced likely in part due to the previous one being wind damaged (along with...

[Hitching Post Inn standalone sign found along W Lincolnway in Cheyenne, WY remains standing - Optopolis]  Back in May of 2021, there were talks of the city finally selling the condemned Hitching Post Inn to be reused for something better. By September, a purchase of the decaying property had been made, and demolition of the hotel is beginning to take place, with much of the old parking lot areas already torn out. [A photo from few days prior of one such parking lot being demolished - Optopolis] Desire to demolish the remaining portion of the nearly century-year-old hotel began to arise as soon as 2017 with three buildings (labeled buildings 1-6, two sections per building) sitting abandoned at the end of that year. The plan was to demolish two and a half of the buildings, but that never coalesced. The buildings were condemned a year later in 2018, deemed uninhabitable. Just over two years later in January 2021, the Hitching Post Inn caught on fire, destroying part of the building l...

Front of Sears Grand* Price Checker inside of Sears Grand*        Unfortunately, it appears that Sears is now closing the Thornton Sears Grand. At the time of writing, this is the first and only known location to exist in Colorado.     Sears Grand opened at this location in 2005, having it's grand opening on October 22nd according to the DPL . To this very day, it still reflects the historic and unique "Grand" signage although it has reduced the variety and amount of products available closer to that of a normal Sears store.     Sears Grands were intended to be clean and modern looking. They were meant to be that one stop shop sort of like a mix between Menards, Walmart, Kohls, and other brands, having everything from tools and hardware to food and clothing.     Although it doesn't have everything it originally had, you still can capture that vibe at the Thornton store, as video'd below in 2019. This store had "closing" jobs posted on si...