A map of the recently acquired development site, outlined in red. (Courtesy DPC Cos.)
A 12-acre site in Englewood was once the largest mall west of the Mississippi. Then it was a massive city-driven redevelopment. Today, it sits 60 percent vacant.
And now, two local developers want to take their crack at it.
DPC Cos. and Ogilvie Partners announced earlier this month that they had closed on roughly 220,000 square feet of prime real estate in the heart of Englewood. The property, dubbed Englewood CityCenter, is bounded by Hampden Avenue to the south, Elati Street to the east and Englewood’s city hall to the west.
“It’s good to at least have a clock to start again,” Hugo Weinberger, a board member of Englewood’s Downtown Development Authority, said in a meeting Wednesday evening.
The property includes a Harbor Freight, Petco and a few other national retail tenants.
DPC and Ogilvie want to turn the sea of parking lots and big-box stores into a mixed-use development that will serve as a “true community center” for the city, per the announcement. DPC CEO Chris King declined to comment further.
The firms didn’t buy the land, but rather purchased a ground lease for the area. It’s currently set to terminate in 50 years, at which ownership of buildings on the property would go to the landowner, which is currently the city.
But the firms have their sights set on owning the property outright, according to an Englewood official.
“Their ground lease termination request … will be tied into their redevelopment plans,” said Dan Poremba, the city’s chief redevelopment officer, in Wednesday’s meeting.
An aerial shot of some of the development site. (Courtesy DPC Cos.)
The two businesses have been around awhile. Ogilvie was founded as a commercial real estate investment firm in 1995 by Stuart Ogilvie. DPC was launched in 1986. It’s been involved in dozens of properties around town, from shopping centers in Lone Tree to offices in Genesee. It purchased a new DTC headquarters last year.
However, specifics of DPC and Ogilvie’s plan for its new Englewood buy are still unknown.
In a statement sent to BusinessDen, the city said the real estate firms have “not yet shared a plan for the redevelopment” with Englewood.
Directly next door to the newly acquired land sits the Englewood Civic Center, which holds the city’s city council chambers, government offices and courts, along with a parking garage to the south. The city expects it to be part of the new development. In addition to the ground lease buy, the developers purchased a $5.2 million retail/office condo at 900 Englewood Parkway to the north of the redevelopment site, according to public records.
It won’t be the first time the site has seen a massive redevelopment.
In a past life, the land was home to Cinderella City Mall. In the 1960s it was the largest indoor shopping mall west of the Mississippi, with 1.35 million square feet of retail and over 250 restaurants inside. It generated half of the city’s sales tax revenue in 1974.
“But in the ‘80s, vacancies mounted and Cinderella stood in rags,” the developer’s announcement reads. Other reports attribute its decline to the rise of competing malls, like the Southwest Plaza in Littleton.
The city stepped in, demolished the mall in 1998 and turned the land into what it is today. City offices moved in along with retail and apartments around it. Englewood penned a 75-year ground lease in 2000 with Weingarten, the firm that redeveloped the site.
Twenty years later, and the property was in foreclosure.
Weingarten defaulted on its $33 million of debt on the improvements it had made on the land in 2018. The lender took back the property, and sold it to another real estate firm a year or two later.
And now, two local businesses, who describe themselves as “longtime friends, frequent collaborators, and sometime competitors” will have a shot at writing the next chapter for Englewood’s city center.
A map of the recently acquired development site, outlined in red. (Courtesy DPC Cos.)
A 12-acre site in Englewood was once the largest mall west of the Mississippi. Then it was a massive city-driven redevelopment. Today, it sits 60 percent vacant.
And now, two local developers want to take their crack at it.
DPC Cos. and Ogilvie Partners announced earlier this month that they had closed on roughly 220,000 square feet of prime real estate in the heart of Englewood. The property, dubbed Englewood CityCenter, is bounded by Hampden Avenue to the south, Elati Street to the east and Englewood’s city hall to the west.
“It’s good to at least have a clock to start again,” Hugo Weinberger, a board member of Englewood’s Downtown Development Authority, said in a meeting Wednesday evening.
The property includes a Harbor Freight, Petco and a few other national retail tenants.
DPC and Ogilvie want to turn the sea of parking lots and big-box stores into a mixed-use development that will serve as a “true community center” for the city, per the announcement. DPC CEO Chris King declined to comment further.
The firms didn’t buy the land, but rather purchased a ground lease for the area. It’s currently set to terminate in 50 years, at which ownership of buildings on the property would go to the landowner, which is currently the city.
But the firms have their sights set on owning the property outright, according to an Englewood official.
“Their ground lease termination request … will be tied into their redevelopment plans,” said Dan Poremba, the city’s chief redevelopment officer, in Wednesday’s meeting.
An aerial shot of some of the development site. (Courtesy DPC Cos.)
The two businesses have been around awhile. Ogilvie was founded as a commercial real estate investment firm in 1995 by Stuart Ogilvie. DPC was launched in 1986. It’s been involved in dozens of properties around town, from shopping centers in Lone Tree to offices in Genesee. It purchased a new DTC headquarters last year.
However, specifics of DPC and Ogilvie’s plan for its new Englewood buy are still unknown.
In a statement sent to BusinessDen, the city said the real estate firms have “not yet shared a plan for the redevelopment” with Englewood.
Directly next door to the newly acquired land sits the Englewood Civic Center, which holds the city’s city council chambers, government offices and courts, along with a parking garage to the south. The city expects it to be part of the new development. In addition to the ground lease buy, the developers purchased a $5.2 million retail/office condo at 900 Englewood Parkway to the north of the redevelopment site, according to public records.
It won’t be the first time the site has seen a massive redevelopment.
In a past life, the land was home to Cinderella City Mall. In the 1960s it was the largest indoor shopping mall west of the Mississippi, with 1.35 million square feet of retail and over 250 restaurants inside. It generated half of the city’s sales tax revenue in 1974.
“But in the ‘80s, vacancies mounted and Cinderella stood in rags,” the developer’s announcement reads. Other reports attribute its decline to the rise of competing malls, like the Southwest Plaza in Littleton.
The city stepped in, demolished the mall in 1998 and turned the land into what it is today. City offices moved in along with retail and apartments around it. Englewood penned a 75-year ground lease in 2000 with Weingarten, the firm that redeveloped the site.
Twenty years later, and the property was in foreclosure.
Weingarten defaulted on its $33 million of debt on the improvements it had made on the land in 2018. The lender took back the property, and sold it to another real estate firm a year or two later.
And now, two local businesses, who describe themselves as “longtime friends, frequent collaborators, and sometime competitors” will have a shot at writing the next chapter for Englewood’s city center.
