Good news for the District’s climbers, campers and cyclists: REI, the specialty outdoors retailer, is opening a sprawling store in NoMa.

The 51,000-square-foot location will open inside Washington Coliseum in late 2016. It will be the company’s fifth flagship store and its first in the District.

“When I first sett my eyes on the Uline Arena, it just felt so right for REI,” said Rachel Ligtenberg, divisional vice president for retail at REI. “It’s the perfect vibrant, active, dense urban environment for us.”

The retailer has long had a presence in the Washington suburbs, where it has six locations dating back to 1987. But the arrival of the company’s first District store marks a landmark moment not only for REI, but for the state of big-box retail in the District.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2015/01/28/rei-to-open-flagship-store-at-uline-arena/