Target Is Coming to Firestone in 2026 — What That Means for Daily Life at Barefoot
Every buyer I walk through Barefoot asks the same question within ten minutes: "Where do people actually shop around here?" In 2026, that answer starts to change.
By Laura Owen
Target Is Coming to Firestone in 2026
Every buyer I walk through Barefoot asks the same question within ten minutes: "Where do people actually shop around here?" For years, the honest answer was Longmont, Loveland, or Costco in Gunbarrel. In 2026, that answer starts to change — and buyers paying attention to Barefoot right now should understand what's actually coming, not just the headline.
What Target Is Building
Target purchased an 11-acre site inside the Firestone City Centre development, just west of the existing Home Depot, near Jake Jabs Boulevard and City Centre Road. The store will be about 128,000 square feet — a full-format Target with general merchandise plus a grocery section, and the drive-up and online-order pickup spaces that come standard in newer builds. Construction began in mid-2025, and the Town of Firestone expects an opening sometime in 2026. No specific date has been confirmed, so I'd treat any dates you see online as directional until Target itself announces one.
For context on scale: the Town has projected roughly $1.5 million a year in sales tax revenue from this single store once it's operating. That's the kind of number that tells you Firestone is building infrastructure around the retailer, not just welcoming a tenant.
Target Isn't the Only One
WinCo Foods — an employee-owned grocery chain based in Idaho, known for low prices and a no-frills, warehouse-style format — bought about 10 acres in Firestone in early 2025, north of Firestone Boulevard. Their filed plan calls for an 84,000-square-foot store at the northwest corner of Green Boots Lane and Arbor Street. If it opens as planned, it will be WinCo's first Colorado location.
A Chipotle drive-through has also been approved on the north side of Firestone Boulevard east of Arbor — a smaller project, but exactly the kind of signal that matters: national chains are filing applications here because they've run the numbers on the rooftops coming online.
What This Changes for Daily Life at Barefoot
Right now, the reality of living at Barefoot is that the big-box run, the serious grocery run, and most chain-restaurant outings mean driving to Longmont (10–15 minutes south on the frontage road) or Loveland (about 20 minutes north on I-25). It's manageable, and people do it. But it's a driving-heavy lifestyle compared to older, established suburbs.
Once Target and WinCo are open, a buyer touring Barefoot today is looking at a 5–7 minute drive to two full-format stores inside Firestone itself. That's not a small shift. It's the difference between "we need to plan a trip to Costco" and "I'm running to Target, back in 25 minutes." For families weighing whether Firestone feels like a real town yet, this is a real change.
The Bigger Picture — Firestone Is Building a Core
There's a larger story behind the retail. The Town of Firestone owns a 252-acre property known as Central Park, acquired back in 2005. Central Park already houses Town Hall, the Carbon Valley Regional Library, and the municipal buildings. The master plan for the full site was approved in 2021, and the Town has been moving through feasibility and development planning in the years since. This is the project that could give Firestone something closer to a real downtown — the piece that's still clearly missing here.
I want to be honest about timing. Master-planned town projects move on their own schedule. If you're evaluating Barefoot on what's open in 2026, Target and WinCo are the pieces that matter. If you're evaluating Barefoot on what Firestone looks like in 2030, Central Park matters more.
What I Tell Buyers
The most common mistake I see is evaluating Barefoot on today's retail picture — Home Depot, the existing King Soopers, a handful of restaurants — and either undervaluing what's coming or overselling it. Neither read is useful. The honest version is this: in the next 18 months, Firestone will feel measurably more convenient day to day. Over the next 5–10 years, it's likely to develop a proper town core. If both of those things matter to you, the timing of looking at Barefoot right now is actually interesting.
If they don't — if you need a fully built-out downtown today — there are other NoCo options (Longmont, Loveland, Berthoud) that will feel more complete. Part of Barefoot's value is that you're buying into a place that's still growing, at prices that reflect that.
Laura Owen has lived in Carbon Valley for more than 25 years and has watched Firestone plan each phase of its growth.
Laura Owen, The Owen Group at RE/MAX Momentum. Licensed in Colorado.