Ulta Beauty opens May 1 at Bemidji's Westridge Shopping Center

Ulta Beauty is set to open May 1 at Westridge Shopping Center, 2008 Paul Bunyan Drive Northwest, giving Bemidji shoppers a new place to buy cosmetics, skincare and haircare without leaving town. The company’s Bemidji store page lists grand-opening hours of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with Sunday hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and says the location will include a salon with appointments for hair, skin and brow services.

For many local shoppers, that changes the routine. Beauty and personal-care items are among the purchases residents often have to order online or seek out in larger cities, and Ulta’s arrival puts a national specialty retailer on one of Bemidji’s busiest shopping corridors. The opening weekend promotion, 20% off any qualifying in-store purchase, could also pull an early wave of customers through the doors as the store launches its first three days of business.

The new store is part of a larger rebuild at the former Marketplace Foods site. A February 27, 2025 Bemidji Planning Commission packet showed Pace Development, Inc. seeking a conditional use permit to lease and operate several new general retail stores in the building. By February 9, 2026, a city newsletter said Westridge Shopping Center was under construction with four individual stores being built within the old Marketplace, and that the Westridge Redevelopment project on Paul Bunyan Drive had its CUP issued, completed plan review and was under construction.

Ulta is arriving alongside other national names moving into the same retail district. Sierra opened at Westridge Center on March 28 in a 20,000-square-foot store, and shoppers lined up in 20-degree cold for the debut. That opening also included a $10,000 donation to the Bemidji Community Food Shelf, underscoring how much attention the west-side shopping center is drawing as it fills out.

Taken together, the two openings point to a retail corridor that is still pulling major tenants into Bemidji. For Beltrami County shoppers, the practical effect is simple: more purchases can be made locally, more weekend traffic is likely to flow through Westridge, and another piece of the city’s consumer spending may stay on Paul Bunyan Drive Northwest instead of heading out of town.