What's New in Manitou Springs This Summer? A Local Guide

If you walked Manitou Avenue last July and walked it again this week, the storefronts are not the same. The town's "keep it weird" reputation tends to get told as a story about continuity, the same drum circles and the same coffin races year after year. That story is missing the past twelve months. Between the East End and the Ruxton corridor, roughly ten new businesses have opened, a long-vacant hotel is being rebuilt around a wellness concept, and a national grocer is quietly trying to reopen the town's old mineral water plant. If you already live here, this is the summer to actually try the places you've been driving past.

The East End finally got an anchor

The Outrider Hotel is the piece of this shift you can see from the road. A 1990s-era hotel in Manitou Springs is getting a new life as local business partners Connor Gatlin and Jordan Malara transform the property into The Outrider, with a stated focus on community, wellness, and capturing the spirit of the Pikes Peak region. The plan calls for 39 rooms, a pool, a hot tub, suites, a sauna, and a wellness focus.

Malara has been direct about the reason the building sat unfixed for so long. He told News5 the property "really was an eyesore to the community for a very long time, which means it was hard to get financing on it, too." That is a useful thing for a neighbor to know. The East End didn't lack ideas, it lacked a project the banks would touch. Once one moved, others followed.

Jenna Wells, executive director of Visit Manitou Springs, framed the ripple effect this way in a statement to News5: over the past year the town has seen approximately 10 new businesses and eight ownership changes, with several more changes in the coming months, and the Outrider Hotel is acting as an anchor for the East End while the real story is the collective spirit of new entrepreneurs and long-standing owners choosing to build here.

Ten storefronts in twelve months

Here is Wells' full 2025-2026 list, with what each one is if you haven't wandered in yet.

The list of businesses that opened in the past year comes directly from Visit Manitou Springs and includes Fellow Folk, Manitou Sweet Spot, Outrider Hotel, Mattie & the Kitties, Manitou Thai & Ramen, Bronx Girl Vintage, Colorado Skillet Company, Manitou Tea Company, and Tealeaf Book.

If you have been in Manitou for more than a couple of years, look at that list and notice what it is not. It is not a wave of chains. Locals have long defended the town's independent, "keep it weird" vibe, shunning corporate chains in favor of small businesses and creative spaces, and the past year's openings have been consistent with that. Ten independent operators in a walkable three-mile downtown is a lot of new front doors for a town this size.

The Ruxton corridor is not just for tourists anymore

The Ruxton addition worth planning around is IncliNation Café, which opened in May a few steps from the trailhead. Owner Christel Aime, a Manitou Incline enthusiast, opened the cafe this month steps from the trail on Ruxton Avenue, saying, "The Incline, that's what makes Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs home to some people."

Two things make this more than another coffee shop for out-of-towners in Lycra.

First, the hours. The cafe is open 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and open until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with live music on Fridays and salsa nights on Saturdays. That is a working evening venue for the Ruxton end of town, which has historically emptied out at dusk once the Incline crowd goes home.

Second, the partnership. The cafe is partnering with SunWater Spa, with plans to add a foot spa and a red light room, and space that could be used for yoga or exercise. Whether or not you drink mushroom coffee, the useful takeaway is that Ruxton is quietly building a second cluster of walk-in wellness options, separate from the mineral spring stops downtown.

The H Mart bet on the old bottling plant

This is the update most residents haven't heard yet, and it is the one with the longest tail.

A major U.S. grocer has acquired the vestiges of a historic industry in Manitou Springs with the hope of bringing it back to life. H Mart, an Asian supermarket chain based in New Jersey with nearly a hundred locations across the U.S., bought the Ute Chief Mineral Water Company building on the west end of Manitou Springs for $1.6 million in February of last year, according to El Paso County Assessor's Office records. The purchase happened without a press release. Brendon Choi, the general affairs manager for H Mart in Aurora, said the company was exploring ways to re-drill the well on the property to bring back access to mineral water.

For context on why re-drilling matters, the previous owner shipped water abroad at scale. The prior operator shipped over 300,000 bottles of water to Korea, but Manitou Springs water did not prove as popular in Korea as it had in the turn-of-the-century United States. The plant has been quiet since. If H Mart follows through, the west end of town gets a working industrial tenant tied to the springs the town is named for, not just another retail conversion. You can read the full history in the Colorado Springs Gazette's reporting.

Your dated summer calendar

The events calendar is where new residents tend to lose the plot, because half the listings floating around online are recycled from 2023. Here are the ones with confirmed 2026 dates worth putting on the fridge.

• Free Summer Concert Series, Soda Springs Park. The Manitou Music Foundation runs the series at the Bud Ford Pavilion in Soda Springs Park all summer, with attendees bringing their own chair and popcorn provided. Monday concerts start at 7:00 p.m. and Friday concerts start at 6:00 p.m.
• Pie contest, July 6. The event began as a way for neighbors to meet one another and has become a friendly pie-baking competition with ice cream and a big band.
• Carnegie Library outdoor concerts. Concerts run Wednesdays in June and July from 6 to 7:30 p.m. outdoors on the lawn of the Manitou Springs Carnegie Library, with attendees bringing lawn chairs or blankets; concerts cancel in inclement weather.
• "Women of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb" exhibit. The Manitou Springs Heritage Museum is presenting the exhibit leading up to the June 21 race, featuring race photos including ones by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Jackson, PPIHC video screenings, and an authentic 1922 vintage race car.
• Commonwheel Art Festival, Labor Day weekend. For over half a century, Commonwheel has been the premier art festival in the Pikes Peak Region, a free family-friendly event that celebrates creativity and supports artists from the community, the state, and beyond.
• Heritage Brew Festival, September 26. The festival brings local breweries to the park with beer, food, and live music.

One boring but important note before you plan a firepit night in the yard. Stage 2 Burn Ban orders are in effect for Manitou Springs as of June 29, 2026, due to extreme fire risk. Check the city's official site before you strike a match, because the details on what is still allowed change with conditions.

What all of this actually means for a resident

The through-line here is not "Manitou is finally getting nice." Manitou has been Manitou. The through-line is that after a long stretch where the East End's biggest building sat empty and the west end's bottling plant sat dark, both ends of Manitou Avenue moved in the same twelve months. Ten independent operators, one anchor hotel renovation, one national grocer with a mineral-water play, and a Ruxton corridor that now has evening hours. If you already live here, the practical result is that the version of your Saturday you had planned in 2024 is missing at least three stops you would probably like.

Try one of the new places this week. Not because it will be there forever, but because the people who opened it are your neighbors now, and small towns run on the second visit.

Thinking about a move within Manitou, or curious what your current place is worth in this changing East End market? The team at Thetford Team Real Estate lives and works these mountain communities. Get your free home valuation or start your search, and let's talk about your move.