Nine months after two local developers bought a host of retail buildings in the heart of Englewood, the city may begin giving them some of the land underneath them.
The Englewood City Council is slated to vote Monday on a series of agreements with Denver-based real estate firms DPC Cos. and Ogilvie Partners that would kickstart the redevelopment process for Englewood CityCenter.
CityCenter includes a string of big-box stores, retail strips and parking lots, plus the Englewood Civic Center building, which holds city offices and courtrooms.
The site along Hampden Avenue has had a tumultuous past. It was once home to Cinderella City Mall, for a time the largest mall west of the Mississippi River. But the mall’s performance sputtered, and it was demolished in 1998.
Englewood bought the land and leased it for 75 years to Weingarten Realty, which developed the current setup. That arrangement led to Weingarten owning the buildings, and the city owning the ground.
In 2018, however, Weingarten lost the property to foreclosure. Over the ensuing years, the area again sputtered.
“Until recently, our efforts were hindered by an out of state company that didn’t have a long-term interest here,” Englewood Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Hilarie Portell said at last month’s meeting. “As a result, much of the CityCenter core area, about five city blocks, became vacant with low foot traffic, criminal activity, deteriorating buildings and, as one local business owner puts it, ‘an air of forlornness.’”
Redevelopment was once again contemplated, first by Portland-based real estate firm ScanlanKemperBard Cos., which entered into a pre-development agreement with the city and produced a couple conceptual drawings. The pandemic complicated the plans, and SKB bowed out in October 2022.
Then, in January, DPC and Ogilvie Partners arrived. They bought the improvements and announced plans for a mixed-use project that would serve as a “true community center.”
The firms also indicated they wanted Englewood to terminate the ground lease. Under the current arrangement, anything built on the site would become owned by the city in 50 years when the ground lease expires.
A complex agreement that goes before the City Council Monday calls for the lease to be scrapped in two phases amid additional steps. DPC and Ogilvie would not pay anything, but would give Englewood some nearby property. And the companies would only be able to advance to subsequent steps by accomplishing certain objectives, such as breaking ground or spending a set amount of money on planning.
“This is pretty huge for the city. It will be one of the bigger decisions I think I will make, probably the biggest decision I will make, during my tenure on council,” Councilwoman Tena Prange said at a meeting last month.
To start, the city would terminate its ground lease on two blocks, giving DPC and Ogilvie ownership of the site.
One block is currently home to Ross, Petco, Noodles & Co., Jersey Mike’s and Einstein Bros. Bagels. No immediate redevelopment is expected. The other block, though, has a two-story retail and office building on it, and is targeted for redevelopment.
In return, the developers would give the city a largely vacant 42,000-square-foot building next to city hall, where 24 Hour Fitness once operated, as well a retail condo to the north that DPC and Ogilvie bought for $5.2 million.
As part of the deal, Englewood would also have a two-year purchase option on a nearly 0.75-acre lot on the southwest corner of the site. That option would disappear when the partnership breaks ground on its developable block.
When that happens, Englewood would terminate the ground lease on the 0.75-acre lot, as well as another block to the east where Harbor Freight operates. No immediate redevelopment is slated for the Harbor Freight site because the retailer’s lease includes extensions that could keep it there until 2040.
Additionally, DPC and Ogilvie would spend at least $300,000 to help Englewood plot how it might redevelop its city hall site and the adjacent gym. That could lead to the firms being tapped to redevelop the site, per city documents.
“The overall goal is to facilitate a first-class mixed-use transit-oriented redevelopment of the area,” Englewood Chief Redevelopment Officer Dan Poremba said at a meeting last month.
Monday’s final vote will come on the second reading of the agreements. The first reading last month featured a public hearing that was about evenly split between supporters and opponents, who discussed a perceived lack of communication between the developers and nearby residents and voiced concern about increased density at the site.
“We’re going to be the neighborhood that gets the traffic of over 1,000 apartment buildings (units). And we’re also going to get all the dog poop — and that’s actually not a joke,” said Pamela Beets, who lives in the Cushing Park neighborhood to the north.
Brad Nixon, who owns a coffee shop just north of the site and a wholesale food production company in the direct path of development, struck a different chord.
“Knowing full well that the redevelopment would actually displace Share Good Foods, I would still support the overall effort because I’m eager to see the vision of mixed-use neighborhood development take shape and contribute to the city’s success,” he said.