Englewood CityCenter won't be rebuilt all at once. Each piece unlocks only when the piece before it is done, and that order is already written into the deal Council approved in October 2025. The IHOP and Qdoba parcel on Hampden Avenue is first in every concept on the table. The Harbor Freight block could stay as it is until 2040. The Civic Center, home to City offices and the Englewood Public Library, is the one building nobody has decided on yet.
On October 12, City Council held a study session with developer New Englewood LLC and reached an informal consensus around one of three site plans, known as Plan 2. That consensus wasn't a vote, and it didn't approve anything. Still, it's the clearest look so far at what will change first on the blocks around the light rail station, and what is likely to stay.
A Lease That Made Building Anything a Losing Bet
The reason CityCenter stood still for so long starts with how the land was set up after Cinderella City came down in 1998. The Denver Post, reporting with BusinessDen, explained that Englewood bought the site and leased it for 75 years to Weingarten Realty. Weingarten owned the buildings and the City owned the ground.
That split shaped every decision after it. Under the arrangement, anything built on the site would become City property when the ground lease expired, about 50 years out. No owner had much reason to put up something new and expensive that it would eventually hand over. Weingarten lost the property to foreclosure in 2018. Portland-based ScanlanKemperBard Cos. later signed a pre-development agreement and produced conceptual drawings, then bowed out in October 2022 after the pandemic complicated the plans.
New Englewood LLC is a joint venture of two Denver firms, Ogilvie Partners and DPC Development Companies. It bought the ground-lease interest on December 20, 2024, and asked the City to end the lease. The agreement Council passed on October 6, 2025 ends it in phases. The developers paid nothing. Instead they traded property to the City, and each later step depends on them hitting a milestone such as breaking ground or spending a set amount on planning.
The Order Is Already in the Contract
The termination agreement works like a set of locks, and each one opens only after the one before it. Here is how the City's project page and the Denver Post account line up, block by block.
| Piece of CityCenter | Status under the deal | Earliest expected change |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel C.2, current home of IHOP and Qdoba | Transferred to New Englewood in Phase 1 | Demolition and grading anticipated mid-2027 |
| The block with Ross, Petco, Noodles & Co., Jersey Mike's and Einstein Bros. Bagels, as of October 2025 | Transferred to New Englewood | No immediate redevelopment expected |
| Former 24 Hour Fitness building, about 42,000 sq. ft. | Now City-owned | Vacant; reuse requires significant investment |
| Plaza retail in the west ArtWalk building | Now City-owned | Interim activation explored |
| Tokyo Joe's parcel, roughly 0.75 acre | City holds a two-year, $3.5 million purchase option | Option ends once New Englewood breaks ground on its developable block |
| Harbor Freight block | Ground lease ends only after New Englewood starts construction | Lease extensions could keep Harbor Freight there until 2040 |
| Civic Center, with City offices and the library | Not part of the current transaction | Open question |
The deal also has guardrails. New Englewood can't sell a key parcel for two years unless the buyer has a building plan the City has already approved. It must spend at least $300,000 within two years planning the Civic Center area. The City is also placing permanent covenants on the land, including a ban on new liquor stores unless the City Manager approves a specific project.
Parcel C.2 Is First in Every Plan
At the October 12 session, the development team walked Council through three site plans, and all three start in the same place. Justin Lutgen of New Englewood described the first concept as "our boring plan." It redevelops C.2, the parcel where IHOP and Qdoba are tenants, into an apartment building of about 300 units, and that building is Phase 1 in all three plans. The team projected design in 2027, with the first structure potentially opening in 2030.
The three plans differ mainly in how much housing follows. According to the October 12 staff packet, they range from 306 to 1,177 residential units, with 125 to 184 hotel rooms, up to 100 income-restricted units, about 50,500 square feet of community and cultural space and about 24,000 square feet of medical office. Retail stays near 53,000 square feet in every version. The developers said that figure aims to replicate the retail square footage already on the site in a new form, so the amount of shopping holds roughly steady even as the number of homes varies almost fourfold.
Developing MyCity's summary of the August concepts identifies Plan 2 as the most intensive of the three and Plan 3 as the one that keeps the existing municipal building. The City's September 29 update adds the features that would draw people in, including an outdoor performance venue, a beer garden, expanded parks and pedestrian connections to transit. It also states that no final master plan has been selected.
What the City Took in Trade, and Who Is Using It
Englewood took title to the former 24 Hour Fitness building and the ArtWalk plaza retail on February 5, 2026. The gym building is the harder of the two. Staff told Council it sits vacant and would need significant capital investment before it could be converted or reused by the City. Earlier this year, the City and the Englewood Downtown Development Authority were looking at interim CitySpark activation for the plaza retail and a possible startup incubator in the former gym.
A few doors away, 901 Englewood Parkway shows what interim activation looks like in practice. In September, Council approved City leases for three organizations that were already working there through CitySpark, and the new leases come with specific commitments:
- Historic Englewood has used Suite 100 for several years for local-history lectures and exhibits, and moves to a one-year lease with optional annual renewals.
- The Guild Coworking operates in Suites 102 and 106, and its lease requires small-business incubation, community event space and at least five business-focused workshops each year.
- CAST Colorado runs art programming in Suites 108 and 112, plans to expand into Suite 118, and must mount at least six exhibitions a year.
City staff have said 901 Englewood Parkway isn't slated for redevelopment, though it remains part of the broader CityCenter discussion. The outdoor art also stays. The Museum of Outdoor Arts closed its indoor Civic Center galleries and moved its headquarters to Marjorie Park at Fiddler's Green in 2022, but it still maintains sculptures in and around CityCenter, open to the public around the clock.
Where Council Leaned on October 12
Council's lean toward Plan 2 came with conditions. In the recorded study session, Mayor Othoniel Sierra said he wanted City offices and the library to stay in the area and wanted income-restricted housing, and he named Plan 3 as a fallback until cost figures arrive. Councilmember Rick Somerson preferred Plan 2 for its flexibility over a 10- to 20-year horizon. Councilmember Tena Prange favored an "always on" destination. Councilmember Jack Bethel said transit-oriented density fits the site. Councilmember Aaron Martinez supported a broad mix of housing types, including ownership options.
Two members raised concerns. Councilmember Rita Russell questioned the density and the cost of a new building, and said she wasn't sure Plan 2 was the wisest choice. Mayor Pro Tem Steven Ward objected to financing through certificates of participation without voter authorization. He also noted that in the community survey, new housing and rebuilding City Hall ranked among the least popular options. That survey drew about 520 responses, alongside two community meetings this year with roughly 30 people at each and four summer Neighborhood Nights events.
City Hall and the Library Are Still Undecided
The table above shows how far each block has moved. The building residents visit for library cards, court dates and permits has moved the least. The City's facilities review found aging systems, an inefficient layout, high deferred maintenance and limited space in the Civic Center for administrative, court and library functions. It also found structural wear in the parking garage that will require major investment over several years. The concepts show anywhere from 40,000 to 142,000 square feet for a city hall, and the developers said they took no position on whether the current building stays.
Paying for any of it would take what staff call "stacked tools." These include tax increment financing through the Downtown Development Authority, metropolitan district financing, New Markets Tax Credits, private activity bonds, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and state DOLA grants. Under the TIF rules, eligible uses include parks and plazas, cultural amenities, public parking, streetscape improvements and middle-income workforce housing.
These are the next decision points, in roughly the order they're expected:
- In November, the Downtown Development Authority is expected to discuss activating TIF with the Budget Advisory Committee, including what it would mean for CityCenter.
- Staff hope to bring any items that need Council approval before the end of the year. No CityCenter vote date has been set.
- Councilmembers want the incoming permanent city manager, hoped to start in January or February, involved before they make major commitments.
- Over the next 12 months, staff plan a unified master plan, a public finance plan, parking and affordable-housing studies, a draft Master Development Agreement and a decision on the Tokyo Joe's option.
- New Englewood is due to begin excavation and grading on Parcel C.2 by July 2027.
No immediate redevelopment is planned for the Ross and Petco block, Harbor Freight's lease could run to 2040, and the Civic Center sits outside the current deal. The first scheduled physical change is demolition and grading on the IHOP and Qdoba parcel, anticipated in mid-2027.
If you live near CityCenter and want to talk through how these phases might line up with your own plans over the next few years, Lisa Snyder would be glad to sit down with you. Let's Connect.
