Scheels Is Bringing 500+ Jobs to Littleton, but Its Megastore Does Not Open Until 2029

Scheels, the employee owned sporting goods chain, will bring more than 500 new jobs to Littleton when it builds a 300,000 square foot flagship at the Mineral Place development. The catch for anyone hoping to apply soon is the calendar. Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2027, with the opening anticipated in the spring of 2029. At Metaintro we check every hiring headline against the employer's own postings and the government paperwork behind the deal, and here that paperwork says more than the press release does. It shows how many of the jobs are full time, what the city actually required in return for its tax break, and what Scheels pays today at its other Colorado store.

Where Is the Store Going, and When Will It Actually Open?

The site is 700 W. Mineral Avenue, the former Lumen Technologies property in south Littleton. Scheels will anchor Mineral Place alongside Costco, on the C-470 corridor in Denver's South Metro.

The city's own staff memo gives the most precise timeline. It expects construction to start in the first quarter of 2027 and the store to open to the public in the first quarter of 2029. The same memo's revenue model assumes an opening in April 2029, so treat spring 2029 as the realistic target rather than a firm date.

Costco comes first. The warehouse club is building an approximately 159,000 square foot warehouse on the western portion of the site, currently targeted to open in 2027. The residential side of Mineral Place is also moving, with 370 new apartment units planned on the 63 acre site.

This will be the third Scheels in Colorado and the first in the Denver metro area, joining stores in Johnstown and Colorado Springs. Company wide it becomes the 38th Scheels location when it opens.

How Many Jobs Are There, and How Many Are Full Time?

This is the number that matters most, and it is not in the press release. The release promises more than 500 new jobs before the store opens. The city's staff memo, drawing on the application Scheels filed, goes further. The Littleton store will employ approximately 550+ store associates, 200+ of which are full-time positions.

Read that split carefully. It means most of the jobs will be part time, which is normal for large format retail but changes what the job is worth to you. A separate local summary of the city's fiscal analysis carries the same split, projecting the store could employ more than 550 people, including more than 200 full-time workers, and it rightly labels these as projections.

The most recent Scheels opening shows how that split plays out in practice. When the Cedar Park store in Texas opened on August 29, 2026, the team had onboarded more than 500 associates, including 100 full-time and 350 part-time new, local hires. That store was first unveiled in an October 2023 release promising more than 500 associates, and the Community Impact story at the time stressed that the majority would be hired locally. A long wait between announcement and opening is normal for Scheels.

The Cedar Park store onboarded more than 500 associates, including 100 full-time and 350 part-time local hires before opening day, the clearest preview of what Littleton's hiring wave will look like.

What Do Scheels Jobs Pay in Colorado Right Now?

Littleton postings will not exist for years, but the Colorado Springs store is hiring today, and its live postings on the Scheels recruiting site are the best guide to local pay. Pay in the Denver area may differ, so read these as a floor for your expectations rather than a promise.

• Cashier. A $16.00 starting wage with the opportunity to earn more through incentives, averaging 20 hours a week.
• Fitting Room Specialist. $18.00/hour, listed at 40 hours a week including nights, weekends and holidays.
• Men's Clothing Sales Associate. $18 to $20+ an hour depending on performance, with commissions and incentives included, averaging 20 hours a week.
• Specialty Shop Manager, Archery and Hunting Sales. A range of $47,000 to $50,000 a year, including commissions and incentives, for a full-time role of 40 or more hours a week.

All of those sit above the state floor. Colorado's minimum wage for 2026 is $15.16 an hour, set by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

The commission element is worth understanding before you apply. The sales posting describes the job as growing personal sales by consistently hitting set goals, so the top of that range depends on how much you sell, not just how many hours you work.

What Kind of Work Will a 300,000 Square Foot Store Need?

More than cashiers and stockers. Scheels describes the store as over 80 specialty shops under one roof, staffed by product experts trained through its in house program, SCHEELS University. Several of those shops are service counters that need technical staff.

The Littleton plan lists golf custom fittings by certified Master Fitters using launch monitor technology, bat fittings with HitTrax swing analysis, bow tuning and arrow fletching by certified technicians, a full service bike shop doing hydraulic brake bleeds and suspension service, and ski and snowboard work including edge tuning and certified binding adjustments. There is also a fly fishing shop offering line spooling, leader setups and rod repairs.

The entertainment side creates a different set of jobs. The store will include a 60 ft. hubless Ferris Wheel, rollerball bowling lanes, an interactive arcade, a 16,000 gallon saltwater aquarium, a toy shop and a candy shop. On its careers page Scheels groups hiring into four families of roles: service shop and technicians, sales and merchandising, cafe and attractions, and customer service.

For a job seeker that means the headline 500 is really several different labor pools. A bike mechanic, a ski tech and a candy counter cashier will be hired on very different terms, and the technician roles are the ones where existing skills will count most.

What Does Employee Ownership Actually Mean for a New Hire?

Scheels leans hard on the phrase employee owned, and it is real. The city memo describes the company as 100% employee-owned, operating through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan that rewards eligible associates with a financial stake in the business.

The key word is eligible. The company's own careers page says Scheels rewards full-time associates beyond their paycheck with the Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Put that next to the city memo's split of 200+ full-time positions out of 550 or more, and the ownership stake is a benefit that a minority of the Littleton team will receive.

The benefits list on a current Colorado Springs posting is broad. It includes the ESOP, a 401(k) with Roth options, associate discounts, medical, HSA, dental and vision cover, paid time off, holiday pay and maternity leave. Even there the posting does not spell out which items apply to part-time staff, so ask directly at interview.

If the ownership stake is the reason you want the job, the question to ask is not whether Scheels is employee owned but whether your role is full time.

What Did Littleton Give Scheels, and What Did It Ask for in Return?

The Littleton City Council approved the deal at its September 15 meeting as Resolution 63-2026. The structure is a 30 year sales tax share. Of the city sales tax the store collects, Scheels gets back 54.67%, the developer RIG Mineral gets 5.33% up to a $25 million cap, and the city keeps 40%.

The staff memo explains why the city agreed. Scheels projected annual sales of roughly $135,000,000, and the memo states plainly that without an approved agreement, the project will not be realized. Staff also found that Littleton has no large sporting goods retailers today, so staff expect negligible cannibalization of existing Littleton stores.

Here is the detail job seekers should notice. The incentive agreement itself, published in the council packet, ties the deal to building the store, not to hiring. Scheels must secure a certificate of occupancy no later than four years from signing, and the 30 year term runs from that certificate. The agreement text sets no minimum headcount. The jobs figures are the company's projection in its application, which is a strong signal of intent but not a contractual promise.

Why Did Some Residents and One Council Member Object?

The vote was not unanimous. Councilmember Merrill Stillwell was the only no vote and objected to the pace, noting the deal was announced on a Thursday with a vote the following Tuesday.

Small business owners raised fairness. A local owner next to the site welcomed the extra traffic but pointed out that Scheels is going to get a rebate on the tax it collects while his own business gets nothing. Councilmember Amanda Henderson called it a win for the city, pointing to the sales tax that funds parks and libraries and to the jobs.

For workers the debate is mostly background, but it is worth knowing that the store's economics lean on public money for 30 years. In our view that gives the company every reason to show visible local hiring, which should help applicants who live nearby.

How Is the Colorado Job Market Doing While You Wait?

Not badly, but not booming. The state labor department puts Colorado's unemployment rate at 4.0% in August 2026, against 4.1% nationally. Year on year, the state added 6,600 jobs between August 2025 and August 2026, though it lost 1,400 between July and August.

That backdrop is why a single employer promising 500 jobs gets attention. It also means the Littleton store is not a reason to wait. Retail and service hiring is happening now across the metro, and experience you build in the next two years is exactly what will make you a strong candidate when Scheels starts interviewing. Our look at where retailers like Dollar Tree and Starbucks are still growing is a good place to start.

What This Means for Denver Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

The honest take is that this is a 2029 opportunity announced in 2026. Nobody can be hired into the Littleton store yet, and the posted pay is Colorado Springs pay, not Littleton pay. Plan for it the way you would plan for a course that starts in two years.

If you want one of the better jobs, build the skill now. The technician roles in bikes, skis, archery and golf fitting are where Scheels needs trained people, and those are skills you can develop at an independent shop in the meantime. A year of service counter experience will make you one of the few candidates who can start on day one.

Aim for full time if the ownership stake matters to you. With 200+ full-time positions projected against 550 or more associates, the full-time roles will be the competitive ones. Leadership roles like specialty shop manager are full time and pay an annual range rather than an hourly rate.

Watch for the hiring window. At Cedar Park the hiring happened ahead of the grand opening, so expect Littleton recruiting to ramp up in the months before spring 2029, likely once the building is visibly finished. Following the Scheels careers page and brushing up on interview basics now costs you nothing.

If you are a local business owner or current retail worker, this is also a competitive signal. A new employer offering commission, an ownership stake for full-time staff and a large training program will compete for the same staff as nearby stores, so expect local retailers to feel pressure on pay and scheduling.

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People Also Asked

Q: When will the Littleton Scheels open and start hiring?

A: City staff expect construction to start in the first quarter of 2027 and the store to open in the first quarter of 2029. Hiring for the more than 500 jobs will happen before the store opens.

Q: How much does Scheels pay in Colorado?

A: Current Colorado Springs postings offer a $16.00 starting wage for cashiers, $18 to $20+ an hour for clothing sales with commission, and $47,000 to $50,000 a year for a specialty shop manager.

Q: Do all Scheels employees become owners?

A: No. The Scheels Employee Stock Ownership Plan rewards full-time associates, and the city expects 200+ full-time positions at the Littleton store out of 550 or more.

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