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 risk of demolition," he said in the presentation video. He described a lower‑level food hall, a terrace promenade, plazas and potential rooftop uses. Goldstein noted he assembled a 35‑page vision book and a change.org petition that had drawn community signatures.

Paremba outlined the competing planning tracks. One concept assumed the Civic Center building would be removed and proposed roughly 1,000 housing units and a new hotel of about 170 rooms on the larger superblock, along with mixed‑use retail and office. The alternate concept would retain the building and build around it. He said those concept plans emerged after the prior master developer walked away and after discussions with the Downtown Development Authority board and the city council.

Paremba also described the current deal mechanics: a joint venture named New Inglewood LLC (identified in the presentation as a partnership of Ogilvy Properties and DPC Companies) was selected as the preferred buyer; a council resolution authorizing consent to a ground‑lease transfer passed in November and the ground‑lease transaction closed in late December. Paremba said the council has a study session scheduled for March (members in the meeting later referenced March 3) where New Inglewood representatives will explain why they request an expedited lease termination rather than the longer redevelopment agreement process.

If council grants an early termination, Paremba said, New Inglewood could proceed more quickly with redevelopment; if council declines, the buyer could instead lease vacancies and operate the property as it stands, a scenario Paremba said could delay redevelopment for five to 10 years.

Paremba listed potential benefits to the city tied to an early termination: the city could receive the adjacent 24 Hour Fitness building, roughly 17,000–18,000 square feet of plaza‑front retail space, and an option to purchase the Tokyo Joe’s property at a predetermined price. He cautioned, however, that the City Council must weigh those gains against the opportunity cost and operational inefficiencies of keeping the existing Civic Center building.

Commissioners and attendees pressed staff on practical constraints and public priorities. Paremba said the Civic Center structure presents real limitations to adaptive reuse—“it would be very, almost impossible to cut new windows in this building” and breaking it into smaller pieces is constrained by the building’s structure and costs. He described the difficulty of negotiating with a previous stakeholder identified as L and R Partners and said the new owner’s low basis gives them flexibility to proceed in different ways.

Commission questions focused on sustainability, transit, parking and public uses. Paremba said the city currently has an obligation to provide about 900 shared parking spaces associated with RTD access — roughly 300 in the garage and 600 in a north lot — and that those spaces are underused, at less than 10% utilization on a typical day. Commissioners asked whether the city could renegotiate parking obligations; Paremba said the city has discussed reducing those requirements.

Members asked how the library would be treated. Paremba said options include relocating the library into first‑floor space of new adjacent multifamily buildings or into plaza‑front retail to activate the plaza; he said final decisions would follow programming and fit studies. Commissioners also asked how sustainability and bicycle/pedestrian improvements would be incorporated; Paremba said design guidelines and rezoning include environmental and pedestrian priorities and that future developers would be expected to present to boards and commissions and to engage public outreach.

Several commissioners said they wanted the Sustainability Commission to have opportunities to review formal plans and to provide recommendations once developer proposals crystallize. Paremba said developers would be expected to visit commissions and that sustainability and environmental factors are built into the city’s design review framework.

What’s next: City Council will hold a study session with New Inglewood representatives in early March (members referred specifically to March 3). Staff said council may take additional meetings to formulate direction and that an executive session could follow the study session for staff briefing and direction.