Shovels struck dirt Wednesday evening as Golden officially broke ground on its new city hall and police headquarters.

Members of the city and project team celebrated the official construction of the Heart of Golden project, three years after the plan was adopted. The center of facilities — located at the former Molson Coors property at 311 10th St. — will include a new police headquarters, a new municipal building.

“Taking this east end of 10th Street that has not been part of the Golden community. For decades, it was Coors Brewery, and those are the only people who really visited this end of Golden,” Mayor Laura Weinberg said. 

There will then be updates to the area the buildings used to reside.

The idea is to make the Clear Creek Corridor, where the police and municipal buildings currently stand, “more usable and desirable for residents while providing needed space for police and city services,” the city said in its project outline.

“We’re really in dire straits. We outgrew our space probably 15 years ago,” Golden Police Chief Joe Harvey said. “We’re going to have a state-of-the-art police department. I think it’s going to be incredible.”

The project will be sectioned into two phases. The first intends to move the police and municipal building from the Creek Corridor to east of Washington Avenue and Ford Street, starting with the municipal building. The second will then refine the Creek Corridor with more “resident-specific amenities,” making use of the new open space, according to the city.

Golden’s current municipal building was built in the 1960s. Over the years, the city has actively pursued options to find enough space to support the growing needs of employees, equipment and the residents it serves, Assistant City Manager Carly Lorentz said last year.

Preliminary cost estimates for the new municipal center’s design and construction are estimated at around $60 million, with completion set for spring 2027.

FCI Constructors, Inc. — which has offices in Colorado in Grand Junction, Durango, and Frederick — was awarded a $90,000 contract for pre-construction management and general contractor services last year. 

Community engagement regarding how the city should handle the project began in 2019 when the city purchased the land from Coors. The plan ultimately took three years to craft.

Meetings regarding what will happen to the Clear Creek Corridor are still in play, with a survey being held in June. Some ideas include improved pedestrian crossing over Ford Street, a park with a section for live performances and a scenic overlook.

The Denver Gazette reporter Deborah Grigsby contributed to this report