Nearly every name on Belmar's coming-soon list is moving into a space that's already built. An arcade bar is taking over the old bowling alley on Teller Street. A Brazilian steakhouse is slated for the room Bar Louie left behind. A yoga studio, a hot pot restaurant and possibly a Japanese lifestyle store are lined up behind them. None of them has announced an opening date. All of them are aimed at the same stretch of the calendar, when The Rink brings the most foot traffic of the year to the Plaza.
So Belmar's winter will look different without a single new building going up. If you've walked past dark windows on Teller Street or West Alaska Drive this year, here's what is going into them and how solid each plan is.
The Old Bowling Alley Gets 1Up's Largest Venue Yet
The 1Up Arcade Bar's LoDo location closed on Monday, June 22, 2026, ending a run that began March 23, 2011. In the same announcement, the owners said the company's next chapter would be in Belmar. They're taking over the former Lucky Strike at 415 S. Teller St.
The size is what sets this one apart. At more than 13,000 square feet, the Belmar space will be 1Up's largest, with arcade games, pinball, redemption games and other attractions. That means the Denver arcade bar that started in LoDo will now have its flagship in Lakewood.
The paperwork has been moving for months. Colorado's liquor-license register shows a Tavern license for "The 1up Belmar" at 415 South Teller Street, issued April 17, 2026, two months before the LoDo bar closed. 9News has published photos of renovation work inside the space, and the company has said it will share build updates until it opens.
There's still no date. The owners' wording is "this fall." Belmar's own retailer page, updated in August, still says "COMING SOON." At the Alameda Connects community meeting on September 2, 1Up was still described as "opening soon." As of October 4, fall has about eight weeks left.
Bar Louie's Old Room Gets a Steakhouse
The second big refill is just around the corner. Bar Louie opened at Belmar in August 2017 at 7111 West Alaska Drive. It was the chain's seventh location in the Mountain states. In April 2025, BusinessDen reported that Bar Louie had closed its Central Park and Belmar locations after the national chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
That room has now been empty for about a year and a half. At the September 2 community meeting, Belmar's update said Texas de Brazil would move into the former Bar Louie space. The chain's location finder lists a Lakewood restaurant for 2026 but doesn't give a Belmar street address or an opening date. Matching the meeting notes to Bar Louie's published address puts Texas de Brazil at 7111 West Alaska Drive. No Texas de Brazil announcement has confirmed that address yet.
The Rest of the List, Sorted by How Solid It Is
These two big spaces get the attention, but the coming-soon list is longer, and the plans aren't equally firm. Here's each one sorted by how much has been confirmed:
- Confirmed on Belmar's own pages, no date yet. Yoga Box is listed at 7071 W. Alaska Drive #420 with a "COMING SOON" label on a page updated September 1. The September meeting notes put Yoga Box on Teller Street, so check the exact storefront when it opens.
- Listed for a long time. KPOT, a Korean BBQ and hot pot restaurant, has a Belmar page saying it's coming soon. That page was first posted in October 2025 and still gives no opening date. It's been a year, so treat it as a plan, not a timeline.
- Mentioned once, and the press tells a different story. The September 2 meeting notes list TESO Life, a Japanese lifestyle department store, as opening soon at Belmar. Four weeks later, the Denver Post reported that Colorado's first TESO is at 1150 S. Ironton St. in Aurora, with a grand-opening celebration October 2–4, and that the second store would be in Westminster later in 2026. A Belmar store may still be planned, but no published report has confirmed it.
- Already open. Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii announced a January 31 grand opening at 7250 W. Alaska Drive earlier this year, and Belmar's directory lists the shop.
One note on sources. The Alameda Connects notes, which carry most of the Texas de Brazil and TESO details, say they were written by AI from a meeting recording and then checked by a person. They're a useful early signal, but they aren't the same as an announcement from the business.
Why the Next Lakewood Openings Are Likely to Be at Belmar
Outside Belmar, Lakewood's summer changes came in smaller spaces, one owner at a time. In Applewood, West + Main Homes cofounders Stacie Staub and Madie Linder opened Blue Nest Bar & Bistro in July at 2050 Youngfield St. It sits next to the Blue Nest Coffee they opened in 2022 and adds a full bar and a Mediterranean menu, which the owners said the area didn't have. Dumpling Legend showed up on Westword's opening list for the week of August 8 at 2595 S. Lewis Way, Unit C. It serves traditional northern Chinese handmade dumplings, both pan-fried and boiled.
The biggest loss also came from a small spot. Pizzeria Lui, owner Zach Parini's wood-fired Neapolitan pizzeria at 5380 W. Mississippi Ave., closed July 10 after 10 years. Westword called it a cult favorite, and no reason was given for the closing.
Then things went quiet. Westword's monthly roundup of openings and closings for September, published October 1, had no Lakewood entries. Outside Belmar, nothing new is announced. Inside it, 1Up has its license, renovation is underway, and several other tenants are lined up. If Lakewood gets a big opening this winter, it's most likely to happen at Belmar.
The Belmar Dates That Are Set
Opening dates are still a guess, but the events calendar isn't. These dates are on the books between now and the end of January:
- Thursday, October 22: Haunted History Tour. Alameda Connects is running it with Heritage Lakewood and Belmar Library.
- Saturday, October 24: BOOMar. Belmar's family Halloween event runs from noon to 3 p.m. at the Plaza.
- Friday, November 20: Holiday Tree Lighting. The event runs 5 to 8 p.m. The tree is lit at 6, and The Rink officially opens the same night.
- November 20 through January 30: The Rink at Belmar. It's listed from noon to 10 p.m. at the Plaza, presented by GFiber. Belmar says more details on the 2026/2027 season are coming, so prices and day-by-day hours aren't posted yet.
The rink's run is the clearest deadline on the list. Any tenant that opens before November 20 gets ten weeks of skating crowds walking past its front door. The 1Up space on Teller Street is a short walk from the Plaza, and whether it opens before or after the tree lighting is the biggest open question about Belmar's winter.
Whenever a long-empty storefront reopens, homeowners nearby tend to wonder what it means for the street around it. If you own near Belmar and want to know how all this activity lines up with what your home is worth, Michael Gordon is happy to walk you through the numbers, patiently and with no pressure. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to start, and we can talk through what's opening on your block.
