Google Maps screenshot
Audio By Carbonatix
Englewood’s South Broadway district is seeing something of a renaissance, but the growing town just south of Denver still has its fair share of closures and vacancies.
Over the past several years, Englewood has seen big names like 24 Hour Fitness, Hobby Lobby, Safeway, Starbucks and Walgreens close and their spaces remain vacant, and smaller businesses have seen numerous closures over the past year or so, too. Those include El Tepehuan, Fancy Tiger Crafts, Frank the Pizza King, Mick Mullen’s Irish Bar, Rodz and Bodz car museum, Sanita’s Brewing, Velosoul Cyclery and the Whiskey Biscuit, among others.
A good portion of these closures were related to corporate decisions, concluding lease agreements or industry trends that were not necessarily specific to Englewood, and several of these dead businesses have already been replaced. Fancy Tiger’s space is now a yoga studio, and a record store opened in Velosoul’s building last year.
But several notable properties still sit empty, and no one likes to see buildings unoccupied for long.
According to CommercialSearch’s listing portal, there are currently 125 office, industrial and retail property listings in Englewood, with the majority of them are office spaces.
A handful of these properties have attracted unwanted trouble. Englewood City Council began looking into an owner registry for abandoned nuisance properties, commercial and residential, in late 2024 after rising reports of vandalism and crime at vacant properties. There’s been no official move forward with the registry yet, but councilmembers directed the city attorney to begin working on a draft last October.
That’s not all the city is doing to address vacant properties.
Aldi in Sights
According to a Community Development newsletter in January, city officials have contacted Aldi, a popular German-based discount grocer, about opening a store in Englewood. Earlier that month, Aldi announced plans to open fifty stores across Colorado over a six-year period, starting with the Colorado Springs and Denver areas.
“The city has initiated contact with Aldi’s corporate real estate team and local representative. Aldi expressed optimism with Englewood’s value for a potential store,” the newsletter reads. “However, there are no viable purchase options available for the company at the moment. Staff will continue to connect with Aldi to explore potential options.”
Old Walgreen’s Has a New Occupant
Englewood Community Development shared several more updates concerning empty spaces and new businesses in town. According to the city, the vacant Safeway and Starbucks buildings — located at 201 East Jefferson Avenue and 4298 South Broadway, respectively — are both “being actively marketed” by real estate brokers, but no sale or lease agreements are in place for either.
Wapos Cantina, a casual Mexican food chain from Boulder, is currently renovating the interior of the former El Tepehuan at 3495 South Broadway, and is expected to open its eighth location there soon after signing a ten-year lease in 2025.
Rodz and Bodz closed its location in Englewood Plaza last summer before the property is redeveloped into an apartment and hotel building, while the old Frank the Pizza King space, where families ate dinner for 64 years, is set to become a used car sales lot, according to the Littleton Independent.
The former Walgreens at 3080 South Broadway closed in late 2024, but was recently converted into a Spanish-language daycare by Tierra Encantada, which plans to open two more learning centers in the Denver area. According to Englewood Community Development, the development plan is under review by the city.
