"No one was walking in there and accidentally walking out with an $800 pair of skis," Icelantic's director of operations, John Douthit, told BusinessDen in September. Shoppers at the brand's Washington Avenue storefront asked what the company had to do with Iceland, he said, "and they'd walk out with maybe a candle or a $30 T-shirt."
That quote explains downtown Golden this fall. After a decade at 1300 Washington St., Icelantic moved all its operations to 15744 W. 6th Ave., near the Interstate 70 and 6th Avenue interchange. Demos, ski sales and tunes now all happen at one address off the highway. During the same weeks, a gift and home-goods shop opened on Washington Avenue, and an award-winning coffee roaster started building a cafe at the south end of the street. People on foot buy candles, coffee and small gifts, and downtown is filling with businesses that sell those things. Downtown is also losing businesses that people had to plan a trip to visit. All of this is happening right before Golden's busiest walking month.
The candle-and-T-shirt shopper is who Washington Avenue serves
Stay Golden Mercantile held its grand opening on Saturday, October 10, at 1106 Washington Ave., Suite 102. The Golden Chamber of Commerce describes it as a locally owned gift and home-goods shop. Put that opening next to the Icelantic move and you have the season's pattern in two addresses. A ski brand gave up a downtown storefront because browsers weren't buying skis. A shop built around the things browsers do buy opened a few blocks south.
Neither business is doing anything unusual. Golden's own holiday pitch describes "quaint holiday shops and festive decorations" along historic Washington Avenue and thousands of lights along Clear Creek. That shopper arrives on foot holding a candle at the Candlelight Walk or a cup of cocoa at the parade. Icelantic didn't fit that December crowd. Stay Golden Mercantile does.
The Icelantic space at 1300 Washington St. has no announced replacement yet. That is the address to watch this winter.
Foot traffic alone doesn't keep a storefront open
Foot traffic is only half of what a downtown storefront needs, and the fall's two restaurant closings show the other half. Both closings had the same owner.
Westword reported on October 3 that Nosu Ramen at 700 12th St. had closed after six years. Owner Brandon Bortles pointed to "a combination of rising operating costs, changing economic conditions and financial pressures" that made continuing operations and signing a lease extension unsustainable. A week later, Westword reported that Abejas at 807 13th St. had also closed permanently. Abejas first closed temporarily over what Bortles called "extended building-related issues," then announced the closure was final. The restaurant had been in Golden for more than 11 years and opened in 2015 as one of Westword's best new restaurants of that year.
A downtown storefront has to earn back its lease and building costs from the people who walk through its door. Icelantic decided those people didn't buy enough skis. Bortles cited rising costs and a lease he decided not to extend. In both cases, the old version of Washington Avenue and the blocks around it stopped working for a specific business. Two well-known dining rooms are dark heading into December, and the side streets off 12th and 13th will feel that most.
The south end of Washington gets a reason to keep walking
The biggest addition this season sits where downtown has historically petered out. Clayworks is a new district at 9th Street and Washington Avenue, built on more than 12 acres the Coors family has owned since 1884. The name comes from the ceramics manufacturing that once happened on the site. CoorsTek was formerly Coors Porcelain, and the Golden Transcript reports that its new Ford Street headquarters stands where the company started its ceramics operations in 1910.
Here is what is already finished, according to the Clayworks construction updates dated October 13:
- The first building, CoorsTek's new global headquarters, welcomed its first tenants in mid-September 2026.
- The new 8th Street and the 9th Street extension are complete and open to the public.
- The plaza is complete, with Colorado-inspired landscaping and gathering space meant for tenants and the broader community.
The draw for people who live nearby is the coffee. Sweet Bloom Coffee is building out a first-floor space at Clayworks, and its own locations page lists the Golden cafe at 800 Ford Street, Suite 102, as "opening soon." Clayworks is targeting an opening before the end of 2026. That is a target, not a confirmed date. Sweet Bloom got its start in Lakewood in 2013, and the Denver Gazette describes Golden as its fourth Colorado location. Its other cafes are at 1619 Reed St. in Lakewood, 8850 Westminster Blvd. in Westminster, and 7745 Wadsworth Blvd. in Arvada. In August, the Global Coffee Awards named Sweet Bloom the best roaster in the U.S. and Canada.
A roaster with that award is a coffee shop people will make a trip for. Its customers will still arrive on foot and stay a while, the same December shoppers who buy candles and gifts. Clayworks' plan points the same way. The district allows up to 60,000 square feet of retail, mostly food and beverage, and the first building has room for four food-and-beverage tenants. Apartments are planned, all of them rentals, but residential work is at the earliest planning stage and has no construction schedule.
Where the three December dates land on the new map
The Olde Golden Holiday Committee runs the season's three big events. All three happen on the same street that changed this fall.
| Date | Event | Where and when | What's different nearby this year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, December 4 | Candlelight Walk | Starts 6:30 p.m. at Washington Avenue and 15th Street, ends at Parfet Park. Santa switches on the downtown and Clear Creek lights at about 7:20 p.m. | The 1300 Washington storefront Icelantic left is still unfilled, with no announced tenant. |
| Saturday, December 12 | Golden Holiday Parade | 10:30 a.m. on Washington Avenue between 10th and 13th Streets. Theme is "Western Winter Wonderland." | Clayworks' plaza and new streets are open at 9th Street, one block past the parade's south end. |
| Saturday, December 19 | Jingle on the Avenue | Washington Avenue. Event hours aren't posted yet. | Returns after the 2025 event was canceled. |
The December 19 date matters more than usual. Last year, the Golden Chamber canceled Jingle on the Avenue because of safety concerns during a Public Safety Power Shutdown. Its notice also asked people to support local shops and restaurants once the lights came back on. Visit Golden's 2026 holiday page has the event back on the calendar for the third Saturday of December. That makes it the first full three-weekend run since the fall's openings and closings.
The parade timing also works with the street's new layout. The route ends at 10th Street, and the Clayworks plaza sits at 9th. On a 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the walk south from the end of the route is now one block to a public plaza, and once Sweet Bloom opens, to a coffee counter. Until Sweet Bloom's opening date is confirmed, treat that coffee stop as possible but not certain for parade day.
How long the lights stay up
The holiday lights last longer than the events, and they come down in two stages, according to Visit Golden:
- End of January: Lights along Clear Creek, including the trees and the Billy Drew Bridge, plus History Park, Parfet Park and other spots around town.
- Through February 15: Downtown Golden's white lights, the multicolored lights on the north fence from the Golden Welcome Center to roughly the Golden Public Library, the Welcome Center itself, and the big tree outside it.
For the first two weeks of February, Washington Avenue will still be lit after the creek lights are gone. By then the street will also have had a full season to show which new businesses the December crowds supported. Icelantic's old space at 1300 Washington and the two former restaurant spaces on 12th and 13th Streets are the ones to watch for new tenants.
If you live within walking distance of Washington Avenue or the new Clayworks streets and want to know what this fall's changes might mean for your home's value, Lydia's Home Team can talk it through with you. Get your free home valuation.
