When a Westword reporter toured 8100 E. Union Ave. in September, the dining room was still covered in plastic sheeting and loud with saws and drills. The space inside the Penterra Plaza building has been finished before. Oak View Group built it for a restaurant and culinary training kitchen called Golden Oak, which was supposed to open in early 2025. Sources told BusinessDen the company spent upward of $10 million on the buildout. Golden Oak never opened.
That room is now becoming G&G Surf Club. It is one of three Tech Center projects this year that are filling spaces with no history of serving customers. G&G is getting a room that was built and never used. Egg Harbor Cafe is taking a ground floor that had never had a tenant. The Brinkerhoff is going up on a Greenwood Plaza lot that has been empty for 20 years. Each of these operators is taking on a large, full-service room at a time when smaller restaurants nearby are closing.
A Finished Room That Waited Years for a Menu
G&G Surf Club is Troy Guard's seafood-focused spinoff of Guard and Grace, his downtown steakhouse. He told the Denver Post that the menu will pair fish dishes with high-end steaks, salads and pastas, and that the cooking draws on his childhood in Hawaii, Seattle and San Diego. He signed a 15-year lease with landlord Edgewood REIT for the prebuilt space. He plans to spend "significant dollars" on changes around the edges, including an island bar and a raw bar.
Westword describes a wraparound bar with a lounge, a raw bar, a sushi bar, an open kitchen and a private dining room. Plans call for roughly 225 seats inside plus two large outdoor patios. The two outlets give slightly different sizes: Westword says 8,500 square feet and the Post says 9,000. Westword also notes the property has been empty in some form since McCormick & Schmick's left.
The opening date is still moving. In June, Guard told the Post he expected to open by Nov. 1. By mid-September, Westword reported the team was "eyeing an October/November opening." As of Oct. 13, the G&G Surf Club website offers only a "be the first to know" sign-up form. It shows no reservation link, posted hours or menu.
Why the Landlord Called Back
Guard told the Denver Post he first talked with the landlord about a Guard and Grace at this site five years ago, but "they couldn't make the numbers work." Then the landlord called back.
"I'm not really excited about the way Denver is right now, but we're banking on it getting better and these really-hard-to-say-no-to opportunities. If this were a regular opportunity I wouldn't have done it."
Guard said that to the Denver Post. He added that his other Denver restaurants were down 15% across the board, and that Guard and Grace itself was flat for the year. Westword reported that he is now weighing offers from "landlords seeking to lure proven operators into long vacant spaces."
A restaurateur who calls the city a tough place to do business is still opening in the Tech Center, because a fully built room with a good deal attached costs less than starting from scratch. The next two projects show the same idea from different starting points.
Two More Spaces That Never Had a Tenant
The Vectra building ground floor at Belleview Station. Egg Harbor Cafe, a Chicago-area breakfast and brunch chain, is taking the whole 5,100-square-foot retail floor at 7222 E. Layton Ave. The Denver Post reported that the space had never been occupied, so the buildout started with a bare concrete floor and windows. The Belleview Station directory lists it as "Recently Opened" with daily hours of 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. It describes a full barista bar, brunch cocktails and gluten-free options. Egg Harbor's own location page still says "Opening Fall 2026," though, and a DougCo Social report said the restaurant had not opened as of Oct. 4. It is very close, but no first day of service has been confirmed.
Lot 7 in the Landmark district. The Brinkerhoff is the bigger bet. It will be a brand-new 9,800-square-foot restaurant at 5390 Greenwood Plaza Blvd. At the council hearing, the applicants said the lot had been empty for 20 years. The contractor described hauling off about six feet of fill that had been dumped on the site over time. Greenwood Village's planning and zoning commission unanimously recommended the site plan in July, BusinessDen reported. A Citizen Portal summary of the Sept. 14 council meeting says City Council then approved the site plan and development agreement unanimously.
The design presented to council includes handcrafted limestone and reclaimed brick, Corten steel details, a covered patio with folding glass walls, and a solar canopy meant to supply about 15% of the restaurant's power. Plans call for about 150 seats plus 20 at the bar, a valet drop-off, 39 parking spaces on site and more than 40 in a garage. The contractor estimated construction at about 15 months. No start date or opening date has been announced.
The first Brinkerhoff opened in Castle Rock in October 2025. It serves a Mexico City-inspired steakhouse menu alongside sushi, family-style, from an open kitchen. Mark and Johana Brinkerhoff of Brinkerhoff Hospitality are behind it. The Denver Post reports that the family's restaurants also include Sierra and Savina's.
The Spaces Turning Over Are the Ones Already Built
At the same time, storefronts that already have restaurant history are changing hands. Tap & Burger closed its Belleview Station location at 4910 S. Newport St. in July after running there since 2018. Founder Juan Padró told the Denver Post that the restaurant did more than $3 million a year in its best years. Sales fell after Peckish, a similar bar concept, opened in the same building in September 2024. Padró said that lease violated a noncompete clause, and that the building's current owner agreed and let him out of the lease early. He also pointed to rising wages, rent and food costs, and said, "There's no signage on Belleview. People don't know it's there."
Greenwood Village saw the same quick turnover in smaller spaces. Westword's Sept. 5 roundup reported that the restaurant side of Mama Kim at 8745 E. Orchard Rd. had closed, while its spa stays open. At 4940 S. Yosemite St., Crave Cookies appeared on Westword's July closings list, and The Sen Tea House appeared at the same address on its Aug. 29 openings list. Yummy Hot Pot opened at 8181 E. Arapahoe Road in July.
So the big, built-for-an-occasion restaurants are arriving in spaces with no tenant history, while the casual spots in existing storefronts keep closing and reopening under new names. Padró's explanation for the second trend is that burger-and-bar menus are full of the ingredients that have gone up most in price, and customers in that category notice every increase.
Where Each Project Stands as of Oct. 13
| Restaurant | Address | City | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| G&G Surf Club | 8100 E. Union Ave., Penterra Plaza | Denver | Under construction; Guard's June target was Nov. 1, Westword's September update said October or November |
| Egg Harbor Cafe | 7222 E. Layton Ave., Belleview Station | Denver | Directory says recently opened; brand site still says fall 2026 |
| The Brinkerhoff | 5390 Greenwood Plaza Blvd. | Greenwood Village | Site plan approved in September; about 15 months of construction |
| Barcelona Wine Bar | 8101 E. Belleview Ave., On The Square | Greenwood Village | Planned for 2027 |
Barcelona is the one item on the list with no reported history of empty space behind it. The Denver Post reports it will be roughly 4,000 square feet, with a 1,000-square-foot enclosed four-season patio and a second outdoor patio. It will be the Spanish tapas chain's second Denver-area location, after the original on Larimer Street.
If you're watching Lot 7 and wondering what 15 months of ground-up construction will look like from your street, Debbie Jacobs can walk you through it. Debbie has a construction background and can tell you how a build like this usually progresses and what it could mean for nearby homes. Book an Appointment for an unhurried conversation about the projects changing the blocks around you.
