City redevelopment officials outline options for Civic Center site as commission presses sustainability concerns

City of Englewood redevelopment staff and a local architect presented contrasting concepts for the City Center redevelopment and flagged a choice the City Council will soon face: accelerate a ground-lease termination to enable faster private redevelopment, or delay major change and allow the new ground-lease owner to continue operating existing buildings.

The issue was discussed at the Sustainability Commission meeting when Josh Goldstein, an architect and Autodesk employee who has produced an adaptive‑reuse vision for the former Cinderella City department store, played a short concept video showing uses such as a food hall, plazas and terraces that would keep and retrofit the Civic Center building. Dan Paremba, chief redevelopment officer for the City of Englewood, described two concept plans that came from earlier joint planning sessions and explained the practical and financial tradeoffs attached to each.

Why it matters: the Civic Center building occupies a central superblock in City Center. Paremba said the property’s ownership history — including a 2018 foreclosure on the prior developer’s ground lease and a February ground‑lease transfer to a joint‑venture buyer — opened a window for redevelopment that could reshape transit connections, housing density and retail on a key corridor.

Goldstein said adaptive reuse could preserve the building’s history and produce new public spaces. "This iconic Inglewood landmark is once again at…