Golden’s historic ceramics campus is getting a serious glow-up. The Pottery, the first finished building in the Coors family’s Clayworks redevelopment, is set to welcome tenants next month as CoorsTek shifts much of its global operation into a newly reworked office. Move-ins to the company’s roughly 80,000-square-foot headquarters space are scheduled to start in August, and the four-story structure folds in ground-floor restaurant and retail space. Across six city blocks, the broader Clayworks plan aims to reconnect the former industrial site with downtown Golden through new shops, more than 500 apartments, and a boutique hotel.
CoorsTek Move-In Details
CoorsTek will anchor the Pottery, taking the primary office space in the adaptive-reuse building and planting its global headquarters squarely in the middle of Golden. Darden Coors said move-ins to that 80,000-square-foot footprint are slated for August and pointed to the pull of Main Street energy, noting that “Golden is crazy busy on weekends.” Those details were reported by the Denver Gazette.
Retail And Ground-Floor Life
The office workers will not be alone for long. Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters has signed on as the first retail tenant, taking a 2,367-square-foot space with an outdoor patio and eyeing a fall 2026 opening. The cafe will be one of three dining-focused storefronts on the Pottery’s main level. Mile High CRE reports it will be Sweet Bloom’s fourth Colorado location and notes that CoorsTek executives helped recruit the roaster. The lease is part of the developer’s push to keep the ground floor buzzing with street-level activity just off Golden’s main drag, according to Mile High CRE.
Preserving The Pottery’s History
AC Development, the firm behind Clayworks, says the Pottery is not wiping the slate clean so much as reworking it. Original walls, windows, and brick facades from the site’s ceramics past have been retained and repurposed, and artifacts uncovered during demolition are slated to be displayed or reused in new public spaces. The company’s project materials highlight sustainability, more open space, and a mix of uses that blend offices with housing and hospitality. The plan also introduces a first-of-its-kind affordable housing component for Golden, with roughly 10 percent of residential units aimed at workforce pricing, according to AC Development.
Leasing And Secondary Plans
Even with CoorsTek as the anchor tenant, the Pottery is not fully spoken for. Developers say about 65,000 square feet of office space in the building is still on the market. AC Development is also weighing options for a neighboring six-story structure of roughly 100,000 square feet, with a decision expected in the next 90 days. Company leaders have floated a range of possibilities for that second building, including traditional offices, condominiums, or a hybrid setup, depending on interest. Those leasing figures and the planning timeline were outlined in a report by the Denver Gazette.
A Decade-Long Makeover
The Clayworks master plan is set up as a multi-phase, roughly decade-long makeover that will bring more than 500 multifamily housing units, a boutique hotel of about 160 rooms, and a significant amount of new office and retail space to downtown Golden. The Pottery itself has been reported at roughly 182,000 square feet in total and is slated to open in the third quarter of 2026, positioning Clayworks as one of the most ambitious downtown projects in the region. Developers say the goal is to weave new development into Golden’s existing main street, not overshadow it, according to 5280.
