Ask three people who live along Powers Boulevard what's new in the neighborhood and you'll likely get three unrelated answers. Someone near Palmer Park will mention a fitness chain that moved into an old anchor store. Someone near Dublin Boulevard will tell you about the dog park. Someone near the airport end of the corridor will just say the traffic finally makes sense again.
All three are describing the same road. They're just standing at different points on two clocks that run at completely different speeds: one that moves in years, and one that moves in months. Once you know which clock produced a given piece of news, the corridor stops looking random and starts looking predictable.
The Overpass That Took Longer to Build Than Some Kids Take to Learn to Drive
In February, the Colorado Department of Transportation opened a new overpass carrying Airport Road over Powers Boulevard, a $46 million project drivers had waited more than two years to see finished and local leaders had anticipated for nearly a decade. The opening reshuffled the four way stop at Troy Hill Road and gave traffic leaving Peterson Space Force Base a more direct route to the main gate.
Only two of the ramps at the new interchange, northbound Powers and from southbound Powers, were open when the overpass debuted. The rest were still under construction.
That detail matters more than it sounds like it should. An interchange this size doesn't arrive finished. It arrives in ramps, over years, with each piece unlocking a little more access before the next piece begins. CDOT is already planning the next overpass on this stretch of Powers, at Stetson Hills Boulevard, and is weighing a similar structure near the airport's main entrance at Milton E. Proby Parkway. If the Airport Road timeline is any guide, that's a multi year project before the first ribbon gets cut.
And yet businesses aren't waiting for the ramps to finish. A convenience store and a restaurant have already opened near the new interchange, with more expected. That's the pattern along Powers: the road takes a decade, but the moment even part of it opens, retail shows up within months.
The Strip Mall That Doesn't Wait for Anyone
A few miles north, at Powers Center on the corner of Palmer Park and Powers boulevards, nothing required a decade of engineering. This corner didn't need a new bridge or a rezoned interchange. It just needed vacant space, and it's been filling that space steadily for two years.
VASA Fitness opened a location inside a former Kmart at the center in July 2024. Lazy Susan's Cocktail Lounge opened at the same property that October. Now Chick-fil-A has filed plans for a 2,714 square foot restaurant on a lot between the center's existing 7-Eleven and Pizza Hut, a drive-thru-only build with no dining room, two drive-thru lanes, and a 40-seat patio. If it's approved, it would be Chick-fil-A's first drive-thru-only concept anywhere in Colorado Springs, a format the chain typically reserves for tight urban lots rather than suburban corridors.
Here's what that corner looks like right now, between what's already open and what's proposed:
- Short Stop Burgers
- Pizza Hut
- Monica's Taco Shop
- Dutch Bros Coffee
- VASA Fitness, inside a converted former Kmart
- Lazy Susan's Cocktail Lounge
- A proposed Chick-fil-A drive-thru, still awaiting county approval
None of that required a bond measure or a construction crew closing a lane for two years. It required an empty box and a lease. That's the fast clock, and it's the reason the same half mile of Powers Boulevard can look different every few months while a few miles south, the road itself hasn't finished catching up to traffic from a decade ago.
The One Storefront That Runs on Its Own Calendar
There's a third clock on this corridor, and it belongs to exactly one address. Near Powers and North Carefree Circle, a speakeasy called Allusion rebuilds itself from scratch roughly every 60 to 90 days. New theme, new cocktail menu, new decor, every quarter, on a fixed schedule that has nothing to do with permits or lease terms.
The current theme, Pirates of the Caribbean, opened July 23 and is still running as of this fall, complete with a themed Skallywag Brunch offered on recent September weekends. Before this it was something else entirely. In three months it will be something else again. It's a 21-and-over concept, and it sits inside an otherwise unremarkable retail strip along a boulevard defined by drive-thrus and fast casual chains, which is part of what makes it stand out. Everything else on Powers changes because a lease ended or a permit got approved. This one changes because the calendar said so.
The Seventy Acres Most Drivers on Powers Never Stop For
Then there's the piece of the corridor that doesn't run on any clock at all. Cottonwood Creek Park, off Dublin Boulevard, covers more than 70 acres a few hundred yards from the boulevard's traffic. It has an indoor pool and gym at the recreation center, sports fields, tennis and basketball courts, a skate park, playgrounds, and an off-leash dog park. A paved section of the Cottonwood Creek Trail runs straight through it, part of a route that begins near Frank Castello Park at Powers Boulevard and continues roughly six miles west before connecting into the larger Pikes Peak Greenway system for anyone who wants to keep going.
Most of what happens on Powers Boulevard is loud on purpose: drive-thru lanes, patio seating, a bar that reinvents its whole personality every quarter. Cottonwood Creek Park is the opposite. It doesn't have an opening date this year or a rezoning application pending. It's simply been there, absorbing dog walks and lap swims and pickup basketball games while the boulevard out front cycles through overpasses and tenants.
What to Watch Next If You Live Here
Once you know the corridor runs on three separate clocks, the next round of Powers news gets a lot easier to interpret. Anything tied to an interchange, like the Stetson Hills overpass or the potential structure near Milton E. Proby Parkway, is a multi year story. Expect studies, funding announcements, and long stretches where nothing visibly changes before it suddenly does. Anything tied to a vacant unit at a center like Powers Center, on the other hand, can change within a single season, the way VASA and Lazy Susan's did in back to back years. And if you want the one guaranteed change on a fixed schedule, keep an eye on Allusion. Whatever comes after Pirates of the Caribbean will likely land sometime this winter.
Knowing which clock produced a piece of corridor news tells you whether to expect the next update next month or in a few years. That's the difference between a resident who's surprised every time something changes on Powers and one who already knows roughly when.
Whatever comes next along this corridor, from the fate of that Chick-fil-A proposal to whatever theme follows the pirates at Allusion, CC Signature Group keeps track of what's actually happening here versus what's still years down the pipeline. If watching the corridor evolve ever has you wondering what your own home along Powers is worth today, our instant home valuation tool is one click away.
