Terra Verde Boutique will offer a more intimate, curated shopping experience, owners say

Terra Verde Boutique is reopening in downtown Colorado Springs this Labor Day weekend with a refreshed look and a more intimate, curated boutique shopping experience — but with the same heart and soul customers have come to know and love.

“It’s still going to be the same Terra Verde, just a little cozier, a little bit more intimate, with more options,” said co-owner Leah Riehl.

The boutique at 208 N. Tejon St. closed for just under two weeks while Riehl and co-owner Carrie Hibbard, who were both longtime managers at the store before they purchased it in 2020, refreshed and updated the space.

It reopens Saturday at 10 a.m.

Terra Verde Boutique has been a downtown Colorado Springs retail staple for decades. It opened on Tejon Street in 1992, developing its reputation as a go-to shop for contemporary women’s clothing, jewelry, accessories, gifts and other digs.

Riehl and Hibbard have repainted and refreshed the store’s flooring and are expanding the types of clothing and brands Terra Verde carries, with a focus on attainable pricing. They’ve also put out a successful call for local jewelry artists to partner with.

But perhaps the most noticeable change will be the shop’s smaller size.

Riehl and Hibbard have added a new wall on the store’s north side to reduce their boutique retail space to around 3,800 square feet, down from 6,000 square feet.

“It’s not that we made the space smaller, but it’s back to its original size,” Riehl said.

Terra Verde’s founders, Chris Sondermann and her then-husband Gary, expanded the boutique by 2,000 square feet when they purchased the building following the closure of the iconic Chinook Bookshop next door in June 2004.

“Partially, that feels like the sign of the times, but it also feels like it is more appropriate for a curated boutique,” Riehl said of Terra Verde’s new design.

The co-owners have not yet decided how they’ll utilize the area behind the wall.

In their more intimate boutique space, Riehl, Hibbard and their employees, called stylists, can give their clients a more engaging and immersive shopping experience.

“We’re not reinventing Terra Verde. We’re just reimagining something beautiful,” Hibbard said.

The co-owners emphasized that updates like the one they’ve recently undertaken aren’t unusual for longtime businesses like theirs — the shop is celebrating its 34^th anniversary this month. Businesses need to evolve as markets and consumer tastes do, they said. It also helps them retain longtime customers and bring in new ones.

Hibbard pointed to the thousands of new residents and apartments that have come to downtown, Colorado Springs’ core district, in recent years. The number of residents living in the area last year was nearly double that in 2024, the Downtown Partnership merchant group reported in the spring.

“Thousands of people have moved into downtown and they’re typically younger. We want to make sure that people know there is something at Terra Verde for everybody, and it’s still the same Terra Verde that the people who have been shopping here for (years) know. Their favorite things are still going to be here, but we also want to invite the people who haven’t been in here to come and see what we have,” she said.

The owners said they offer something for customers of every generation. Terra Verde sells a variety of women’s clothing, shoes and other accessories like bags and hats, home décor items, bath and body products, candles, baby clothes and toys, and jewelry.

Riehl and Hibbard encouraged visitors to stop into their store and see what other downtown retailers, restaurants and organizations have to offer.

“There is so much (that is) new. There is so much (that is) exciting. And we recognize how incredible it is to be a staple in a community like this,” Riehl said.