L.L.Bean to open eight new stores in 2026 as rebooted $50 million Freeport flagship debuts

L.L.Bean plans eight new stores nationally in 2026, including first entries into Alabama and Tennessee, per Chain Store Age — an expansion push the outdoor retailer is pairing with this weekend's grand reopening of its Freeport, Maine flagship, capping a renovation of more than $50 million that touched 150,000 square feet of retail space and took nearly two years of construction. The company unveiled the finished store on September 14, with grand opening festivities set for September 18-20 and themed celebration weekends running through late October, and calls the project the largest investment in the flagship property's history.

The overhaul is the biggest change to L.L.Bean's home base in a generation. The company has anchored Freeport for more than a century, and the flagship campus — roughly 220,000 square feet in total — ranks among Maine's most-visited destinations, long famous for keeping its doors open around the clock. Beyond Freeport, the brand operates more than 70 U.S. stores across 20 states, plus 18 stores in Japan and 16 in Canada through partner Jaytex Group, according to Retail & Restaurant Facility Business.

The reimagined store leans hard into experience. Shoppers now enter beneath a grand double staircase, and the store's beloved trout pond has doubled in size to a two-tiered, 15,000-gallon habitat with improved viewing areas, joined by an expanded 6,000-gallon stream tank with accessible viewing bubbles. The 1912 Café nearly doubled its footprint, a new Custom Shop offers monogramming, engraving and embossing, and the children's department was redesigned with input from customer focus groups. Outside, a 17,000-square-foot Discovery Park adds green space for community programming, all wrapped in a New England village-inspired design.

The project was first announced in January 2023, and L.L.Bean kept selling throughout: during heavy construction, merchandise moved into "Camp L.L.Bean," a roughly 28,000-square-foot temporary retail structure on the property, per Pulse2.

"Reimagining an icon is an extraordinary undertaking, and the result reflects the passion, creativity, and dedication of the team," said Greg Elder, L.L.Bean's president and CEO, in the announcement covered by Chain Store Age.

The flagship bet lands as the privately held retailer works to restart top-line growth. Maine Public reports that revenue, which reached about $1.8 billion during the pandemic, has stayed roughly flat since, and that the company is targeting $2 billion in annual sales by 2030. New stores are a central lever: beyond the eight 2026 openings and the Alabama and Tennessee debuts, Maine Public notes the expansion push is aimed at the Southeast, the Midwest and Colorado. Elder has said the new stores will "allow customers to immerse themselves in the brand and outdoor lifestyle in person."

The Freeport project is a clear vote for destination retail: a $50 million spend on ponds, cafés and gathering spaces is justified by tourism traffic and brand halo, not sales per square foot alone — the same experiential playbook driving Bass Pro and Scheels-style formats. Second, the "Camp L.L.Bean" temporary store is a template worth noting for any retailer facing a multi-year flagship renovation; staying open preserved both revenue and Freeport's visitor draw. Third, the real expansion story is at the other end of the size spectrum — eight 2026 openings and new-state entries into Alabama and Tennessee suggest a steady pipeline of conventional-format deals in Sun Belt and Midwest trade areas, a meaningful tenant prospect for lifestyle centers and power centers courting full-price outdoor brands. And with revenue flat since the pandemic, watch whether the reopened flagship's halo actually translates into the fleet growth needed to hit that $2 billion goal.