EL PASODevelopment news

At last! A thread devoted to new developments in El Paso and the Borderland! As a fast-growing city in the Southwest of 625,000 with a metro area of over 2 million, including neighboring Ciudad Juarez and Las Cruces NM, El Paso is home to one of the largest military bases in the world, Ft Bliss, and to numerous manufacturing, import-export, and service firms. The University of Texas at El Paso has a unique campus with nearly 20,000 students. The city is strategically located at the intersection of far West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Mexico. Along with Ciudad Juarez, El Paso is home to numerous twin plant operations that employ hundreds of thousands on both sides of the border. One such operation is the new Foxconn Computer plant, one of the largest such factories in the world with a projected employment of 20,000. The border crossings between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez are among the busiest on earth with over 23 million crossings each year. El Paso is a significant rail and trucking hub as well as a major air freight hub. The warm, sunny climate provides a resort atmosphere for El Paso, ideal for golf, hiking in the nearby mountains, cycling, and a variety of activities.

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El Paso Healthcare news: mailto:vkolenc@elpasotimes.com?subject=El Paso Times: Bustling health care industry gives boost to El Paso:

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Bustling health care industry gives boost to El Paso
By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Posted: 12/13/2009

EL PASO -- El Paso's health-care industry has exploded in recent years with more than $2.5 billion allocated for recent and projected projects, information supplied by El Paso's major hospitals and universities shows.

That number is conservative because it doesn't include all health-care-related facilities in El Paso. Most of the reported money already spent is for projects completed in the past four years. Future planned projects go to 2015.

Two big projects now in the works: the $315.6 million remake of University Medical Center (formerly Thomason Hospital) over the next two years, including the addition of a $122 million children's hospital, now under construction, and a planned new Beaumont Army Medical Center, projected to be built between 2011and 2016 in East El Paso at an estimated cost of $1.46 billion. That's more than the new, $1.3 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington.

"The health-care industry is a large and major sector of the economy in El Paso, and the surrounding area. I think you'll see a proportional expansion of the industry with the (population) growth of the region," said John Harris, president of the Sierra Providence Health Network, one of El Paso's largest private employers with about 3,500 employees. It's owned by Tenet Healthcare, a national hospital chain.

Sierra Providence last year opened a $148 million, 110-bed hospital at 3280 Joe Battle Blvd. to tap into the fast-growing East Side.

"The hospital has been very busy," Harris

said -- so busy, that Sierra Providence is looking to expand it by 90 more beds, possibly in the next two years. "I think all the hospitals (in El Paso) are relatively busy" in part because the city is the medical center for this region, he said.
Sierra Providence, which operates three general hospitals, has spent about $258 million on new equipment, new buildings and upgraded facilities since 2003, Harris said. Sierra Providence did not provide the exact amount spent since 2006. Besides the hospital, it also spent $13.5 million in the past four years on major equipment additions, according to data from the health network.

"The major byproduct of all the investment" by Sierra Providence and other health-care providers is "creation of jobs," and making El Paso more attractive to out-of-town companies looking for new locations, Harris said.

Terri Wyatt, a spokeswoman for Las Palmas Medical Center, said, "Every time something is constructed" in the El Paso health-care industry, it brings more money and more jobs into the area. Those jobs often require high skills, she added.

Las Palmas added more than $61 million in major expansion projects and equipment additions since 2006, including a $40 million emergency room and intensive care addition in 2006, Wyatt said. It's now building a $15 million neuroscience unit.

Its sister hospital, Del Sol Medical Center on the East Side, also owned by national hospital chain HCA Inc., had more than $29 million worth of expansions and equipment additions since 2007, including a $10 million medical office building, data from the hospital show.

The health-care services industry in El Paso employed an estimated 30,400 people in October, the latest data available from the Texas Workforce Commission. That ranks the industry as the third-largest employer in this area, slightly ahead of the professional and business services sector, commission data show.

The health-care services industry makes up about 11 percent of El Paso's civilian work force.

Robert Crawley, an economist at the Workforce Commission in Austin, said the health-care industry has shown "significant resilience in the (economic) downturn" in El Paso, across Texas and across the United States. Because of several projects in the works, the health-care industry will continue to be important for El Paso in the future, he said.

James Valenti, CEO at University Medical Center, said the county-operated hospital in Central El Paso is going through an entire renovation and expansion because many of its departments are operating at capacity, many parts of the building are 30 to 50 years old, and the hospital now has a "higher calling and a higher vision" as a university hospital tied to the new Texas Tech medical school.

UMC's $315.6 million renovation and expansion, including the 120-bed children's hospital, is "the largest health-care construction program in the history of El Paso," Valenti said.

That distinction will be lost in spring 2011, when the Army is expected to begin construction of a $1.46 billion hospital complex at Loop 375 and Spur 601 near the Butterfield Trail Golf Course to replace the 38-year-old, 140-bed Beaumont Army Medical Center next to Fort Bliss. Details of the project are still being developed, but the new hospital campus "will take care of all of Fort Bliss's growth through 2014," said Army Maj. John Evans, program manager for the Army Health Facility Planning Agency office at the post.

The new hospital complex is projected to increase Beaumont's employment by about 500 people, said Clarence Davis, a Beaumont spokes man. It now employs about 2,700 people, including military and civilian workers, and contractors.

Beaumont spent $31.6 million on equipment and hospital upgrades in the past two years, according to data from the hospital. It also is tied to $111.8 million worth of construction of several medical clinics and the $56 million Warrior in Transition complex.

Valenti, at UMC, said the children's hospital would be paid with a property-tax funded bond issue approved by voters, and money for the rest of the hospital's expansion and renovation would come from hospital revenues and reserves.

"We've had a very special time. We've been profitable as a hospital for four-plus years," Valenti said.

UMC spent $20.4 million on expansions, renovations and major equipment additions at the hospital and its four neighborhood health-care centers in the past three years, data from the hospital show.

The UMC construction project employs 340 construction workers now, and that work force will peak at 600 workers next year, Valenti said. The hospital will add 260 jobs to its work force by 2012 when the children's hospital is expected to open. UMC now employs about 2,000 people, including jobs at its neighborhood clinics.

Across the street from UMC is another big piece of El Paso's recent health-care expansion -- the Texas Tech University Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. It opened in July with 40 students.

The medical school is now housed in two buildings, which cost $100.1 million to build and equip, according to data from the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso. And Thursday, Texas Tech officials announced that the school would make the El Paso campus into a full-fledged health-sciences center in the future with new schools of dentistry, pharmacy and allied health added to the existing medical and nursing schools.

The University of Texas at El Paso has also expanded its health-care-related facilities in recent years. It's spending $105.8 million for three facilities: A $60 million College of Health Sciences/School of Nursing Building, under construction; a $45 million Bioscience Research Building, completed this year; and relocation and current renovation of the UTEP Student Health Center, costing $841,250.



Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.co;m 546-6421.

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El Paso Children's hospital






Spending projects
Recent and projected spending for capital improvements by selected health-care providers and health-care educational facilities in El Paso:
Beaumont Army Medical Center
$111.8 million for construction of clinics and Warrior in Transition complex, 2007-2009.
$85.5 million in projected clinic construction, equipment upgrade, 2010-2015.
$1.46 billion for new hospital complex in East El Paso, 2011-2015.
University Medical Center $20.4 million for hospital and clinic expansions, renovations, and construction, 2006-2009.
$193.5 million for renovation, expansion of existing hospital, 2010-2012. $122.05 million for new children's hospital, 2009-2012.
Sierra Providence $148 million for new East Side hospital, opened 2008.
$13.5 million for major equipment additions since 2006.
$96.3 million for capital improvements since 2003.
UTEP $105.8 million for two health-care-related buildings, renovated student health center.
Texas Tech $100.1 million for two medical school buildings completed in 2006 and 2007.
Las Palmas Medical Center $61.2 million for major equipment additions, facility expansions since 2006.
Del Sol Medical Center $29.25 million for major equipment additions, facility expansions, construction since 2007.
University Behavioral Health $4.1 million for renovation of building for psychiatric hospital and drug-treatment center opened in late 2007.
El Paso LTAC Hospital $1.56 million for renovation and expansion of 33-bed long-term care hospital opened in 2006.

Total About $2.58 billion. Sources: Hospitals, UTEP, Texas Tech.
$31.6 million for equipment additions, hospital upgrades, 2007-2009.

Ft Bliss Developments:


FORT BLISS, Texas — The expansion and transformation of this former training post has hit high stride, with brigade complexes and a division headquarters sprouting in areas that just months ago were barren desert.

The transformation, primarily inspired by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommendations of 2005, involves a projected outlay of nearly $5 billion and a 300 percent increase in the post’s population.

Clark McChesney, director of the Team Bliss Base Transformation Office, said the Army has committed $3 billion for the project so far and is on schedule to complete major portions of the expansion in the 2012-13 time frame.

“The Corps of Engineers is committing $2 million per day to construction companies and turning over at least one building per week to the installation,” McChesney said. “To give an idea of just how big this is, the Corps of Engineers will be spending $1.1 billion on military construction here this year,” said Col. Edward Manning, Fort Bliss garrison commander. “By comparison, the Air Force will be spending slightly less than $1 billion for all its military construction over the same period.”

As construction booms, the post is experiencing a sharp increase in population, which officials estimate will by 2012 total 33,400 soldiers in five combat brigades and 58,000 family members. When expansion began in 2005, there were 9,300 soldiers permanently based at Fort Bliss, along with 15,300 family members. The post also had a large student population, about 2,100 at that time, but that is quickly eroding with the ongoing move of the Air Defense Center and School to Fort Sill, Okla. While the post will have 4,000 family quarters when the expansion is done, Army officials estimate 17,000 families will live off-post in the surrounding community of El Paso, a large metropolitan area with more than 1 million inhabitants.

Most of the Fort Bliss population growth is related to the phased relocation of the 1st Armored Division from bases in Germany. At Fort Bliss, the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of 1st AD, the 44th brigade in the Army’s nearly complete arsenal of 45 brigades, officially goes on the active duty rolls Aug. 16. The 45th brigade in the objective maneuver force will be the 2nd BCT of 1st AD, a heavy brigade scheduled to activate here Sept. 16, 2010, McChesney said. That unit, recently returned from a 15-month deployment in Iraq, cased its colors and reflagged as the 170th Infantry Brigade during a ceremony July 15 at Baumholder, Germany. The 2nd BCT colors will be brought out of storage next summer as the brigade is rebuilt from scratch.

Until recently, the Army planned on building a maneuver force of 48 brigades, but now is focused on 45 brigades. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that is a more prudent goal given the Army’s operational commitments and the strain on soldiers and families of keeping existing brigades manned and in the deployment cycle for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Results of the Quadrennial Defense Review, due late this year or early next year, could shift another brigade to Fort Bliss if the Defense Department reduces the brigade inventory in U.S. Army Europe from four to two, as originally envisioned under BRAC.

In the current stationing plan, 1st Armored Division headquarters will relocate from Wiesbaden, Germany, to Fort Bliss in May 2011, according to McChesney. That plan calls for the division to have five maneuver brigades, including a combat aviation brigade, which today is flagged as a unit of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. The CAB is scheduled to reflag here in the summer of 2011 and occupy new barracks, brigade headquarters, hangars and other aviation support structures in the Biggs Airfield sector of Fort Bliss.

The division headquarters and other brigade complexes will occupy previously unused land in a desert expanse called East Fort Bliss. Each of the brigade complexes will cover 300 acres, have more than 30 structures and serve as the workplace and barracks for up to 3,800 soldiers. A brigade complex is about one mile wide and half a mile deep.

About 9,000 of Fort Bliss’ soldiers will work at facilities on the main post, where a new shopping mall called Freedom Crossing, an expanded commissary and other services, will be located. The remaining 24,000 soldiers will work in new facilities at Biggs Airfield and East Fort Bliss, connected to the main post area and its services by a network of roads and overpasses.

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Kolmar Labs Group mulls move to El Paso
By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/01/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT


EL PASO -- Kolmar Labs Group, a New York cosmetics and pharmaceutical manufacturer, is looking at El Paso as a possible place to relocate its factories and corporate headquarters, and bring about 750 jobs, including chemists and other high-skilled jobs, within a five-year period. The City Council on Tuesday promised to give Kolmar about $1.5 million in property tax rebates over five years to locate here. The company also will be asking the county for the same deal, which would result in an additional property tax rebate of about $800,000 over five years, according to city data. Kolmar has not determined yet whether it will ask for tax breaks from other local government agencies. But Kolmar also is seeking a tax incentives package from the state.

The company is also looking at San Antonio, Louisiana and New Jersey as possible relocation sites, said Robert Theroux, Kolmar CEO and president. It could also remain in New York, he said. "We're trying to get incentives from the other communities also. We'll make a decision in the next several months," Theroux said. "El Paso is desirable" because of its location near California and Texas customers, its labor pool, and the ability to get graduates from UTEP, Theroux said. "We need to have a good supply of technically skilled people," including chemists and microbiologists, he said.

The 87-year-old, privately held company, with annual sales of about $100 million, bills itself as the largest contract formulator and contract manufacturer of name-brand color cosmetics in North America. It also manufactures pharmaceutical skin-care products.
This would be the first biotech company attracted to El Paso by the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., or REDCo, since it launched an initiative last year to attract companies in the life sciences industry. "This can be a game changer for the local economy," said REDCo President Bob Cook. "Once you land a single (biotech) company, it creates an environment to land more."

Theroux said the company has operated its Port Jervis, N.Y., facility since 1943. "But the environment is not friendly to business," and the cost of operating there has dramatically increased in the past 10 years, he said. The company also has a small plant in Mahwah, N.J., he said. Bill Matos, Kolmar vice president of human resources, said the company now has to compete with other pharmaceutical companies for chemists and other skilled workers because it's located in "pharmaceutical alley."

The company would hire most of its work force in the El Paso area, including an administrative staff of about 30 people, Theroux said. Matos said about half its work force would be white-collar workers and about half would be blue-collar factory jobs. The company offers an extensive fringe-benefits package, Matos said. Wages for 50 percent to 60 percent of the jobs would exceed El Paso County's median wage, which is $11.50 an hour, the Kolmar officials said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.





Santa Teresa growth
Expeditors International of Washington Inc. has signed a lease on an 86,550-square-foot facility in the Verde Binational Park in Santa Teresa, New Mexico Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Fred Mondragón said. The Seattle company is a global logistics company and will employ 30 people at the new facility. Expeditors has 170 offices and 12 international service centers. The Office of Mexican Affairs of the New Mexico Economic Development Department, the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance and the New Mexico Partnership worked together to bring the company to Santa Teresa, Mondragón said. -- David Burge



Kolmar Labs Group
Kolmar Labs Group bills itself as the largest contract formulator and contract manufacturer of name-brand cosmetics in North America. It also manufactures some pharmaceuticals. The privately held company, located in Port Jervis, N.Y., has annual sales of about $100 million, and employs about 750 people. It also operates a plant in Mahwah, N.J. The company is looking at El Paso as a possible site to relocate and build a $53 million million factory and headquarters facility on 30 acres. Source: Robert Theroux, Kolmar president and CEO

Ohio man plans to build $180 million state-of-the-art cancer treatment facility in El Paso
Times staff report
http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11657703

EL PASO - An Ohio developer plans to build two $180 million proton-therapy facilities to treat cancer -- one in Dublin, Ohio and the other in El Paso.
Each facility would be 100,000 square feet and create 100 jobs, according to a report in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. There are five such facilities in the country.

The most significant difference between standard radiation treatment and proton therapy is healthy tissue may receive a dose of the standard radiation that is being directed toward the cancer. "Consequently, a less-than-desired dose is frequently used to reduce damage to healthy tissues and avoid unwanted side effects," The National Association for Proton Therapy says on its Web site. "The power of protons is that higher doses of radiation can be used to control and manage cancer while significantly reducing damage to healthy tissue and vital organs."

Dublin officials have agreed to put in sewers, roads and telecommunication wiring on 32 acres of land and give developer Daniel M. Slane a tax break of up to $2.5 million. Slane needs to have financing in place by the end of the year with construction starting by the end of 2010 for the Dublin facility.

Verde Realty Completes Rail in Santa Teresa Intermodal Park
PRWeb http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/1/prweb1871944.htm

January 15, 2009

Original PRWeb article: Verde Realty Completes Rail in Santa Teresa Intermodal Park
- Verde Corporate Realty Services announced that construction has been completed on 4,283 feet of new railroad track and new switch in Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park in Santa Teresa, NM. The track and switch will service the master-planned park's first phase totaling 118 acres.

Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park is a 1,221 acre master-planned, rail-served industrial park that can accommodate user requirements from 5 acres to 200 acres. When fully-built out, the park will have five rail spurs directly connected to the Union Pacific Main Line. The park provides a further benefit to users in that it is located within Foreign-Trade Zone No. 197.

The Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park is the only facility of its kind in the region capable of fulfilling transloading, cross-border trailer staging and build-to-suit requirements. Construction of the new Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing facility in San Jeronimo, Mexico, that is located immediately adjacent to Santa Teresa, and Union Pacific's plans to build new facilities in Santa Teresa will generate meaningful economic activity in the area and incremental demand for rail served facilities. This park will address the needs that will arise from this activity.

Foxconn, the trade name for Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., began construction in July 2008 on a 440-acre manufacturing campus which will eventually employ 20,000 workers. The project's first phase, a 650,000-square-foot facility, is scheduled to open in March 2009 and employ 5,300 workers making computers, laptops and other electronic equipment for a variety of companies. Foxconn is an electronics manufacturing giant that makes products for Apple, Nokia, HP, Motorola, Dell, and Sony, among others, and more cell phones than any other firm in the world.

Union Pacific plans to initially invest $150 million in a 934-acre fueling, switching and intermodal yard to be completed between 2010 and 2014. Once complete, it will be the largest fueling and intermodal facility on the U.S.-Mexico border. When fully operational, the Union Pacific facility will employ 280 people.

In addition to Union Pacific's investment, Verde Corporate Realty Services' Director of Business Development, Jay Kleberg said, 'The development of Verde's Intermodal Park is a critical step in servicing the increased demand by local and national manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors to efficiently transport goods from coast-to-coast and service clients in Mexico.'

Kleberg went on to note that, 'The Park's location, five miles from the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, the new Foxconn campus in San Jeronimo and Union Pacific's new refueling and intermodal yard is ideal for transportation providers and suppliers doing business in Mexico. Verde has had numerous inquiries about the availability of rail-served land and build-to-suit capabilities, and we look forward to accommodating the corporate real estate requirements of our customers.'

Verde Corporate Realty Services is a leading owner/operator of corporate facilities throughout the United States/Northern Mexico border region. Verde's team of experienced bi-cultural professionals provides real estate services from the design/ build phase through subsequent years of facility operation.

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Rapid Transit, Light Rail Part Of Sun Metro Future
Daniel Novick-KFOX News Reporter mailto:elpnews@kfoxtv.com
November 25, 2008

EL PASO, Texas -- Sun Metro's plan between now and 2028 includes new terminals across the city, rapid bus transit service, and even the possibility of light or commuter rail. Sun Metro's Michael Herrera took KFOX and city leaders on a time machine bus of sorts on Tuesday. "A first hand feel of what the future of Sun Metro holds," said Herrera while standing in the aisle of a newly minted Sun Metro bus. Herrera showed KFOX the four locations where by 2011, Sun Metro will have new terminals. "In the next 36 months you are going to see a lot of construction. You are going to see a lot of facilities, starting off with the downtown at Third and Santa Fe," said Herrera. The other three terminals are at Glory Road, one at Remcon Circle, both in West El Paso, and a terminal in the Lower Valley at Zaragoza Road and Alameda Avenue. Sun Metro also wants to introduce Smart 101 and bus rapid transit, where buses will have dedicated lanes and express service. "It is viable, it does work, and there is no reason why we can't do it here," Herrera told KFOX. The public was also allowed to hop on the bus on Tuesday, and not everyone was excited about what they're hearing. "That site on Santa Fe and Fourth there, is one of the most remote and blighted parts of the city, no one wants to be there," said Matt Carroll from downtown El Paso. Carroll rides the bus a few times a week. He's not only worried about the location of the new downtown terminal, but that Sun Metro will make choices that will hurt him and other riders. "We have to improve it, but change is not necessarily improvement. We must make sure that the change will be done in a manner that will benefit the bus riders, and encourage more people to use the bus," said Carroll. Sun Metro will also be bringing online 40 more buses in the next year. Of course there is a price tag. Sun metro will invest $180 million between now and 2011 in capital investments. But that is pocket change compared to the estimated $2.5 billion for the potential of light or commuter rail in 2028.

ELP.com http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_14989021

Bond election set: $150M would enhance quality of life
By David Burge \ El Paso Times
Posted: 04/30/2010


EL PASO -- The City Council has picked November 2011 as the target date for a $100 million to $150 million bond election. Voters will be asked to allow the city government to borrow the money for quality-of-life projects, City Manager Joyce Wilson said Thursday. These could include improvements to parks and libraries and purchasing open space. Exact projects have not been determined. Wilson, though, said one large signature project would be proposed.

Possible large projects could include building a Downtown arena or constructing an aquarium, IMAX theater or a trolley system between Downtown and the zoo, Mayor John Cook said. Another possibility is building a music center that would feature live Latin-American acts, he said.

City Council members did not take a formal vote to set the election date. Instead, the fall 2011 target was established through consensus during a financial planning meeting. "If we're not ready, we can always delay it," Cook said.

If the bond issue is approved by voters, the money would be borrowed over seven to 10 years and paid back using taxpayer dollars over 20 to 25 years, he said. City Rep. Steve Ortega said he wanted to make sure the public gets plenty of opportunity to discuss what it wants included in a bond vote. Ortega also wants to see the city focus on projects that could boost tourism and economic development.

The city seeks voter approval to borrow money for projects that are considered extras, Ortega said. It can borrow money without voter approval by using certificates of obligation to fund core services that focus on the health and public safety of the community.

From the El PasoTimes: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12319005

Banking authority: Bank of the West CEO sees El Paso holding steady amid global troubles
By David Burge / El Paso Times
Posted: 05/07/2009


Larry Patton President and CEO of Bank of the West sits at his desk at the downtown bank. (Ruben R Ramirez/El Paso Times)EL PASO -- Bank of the West President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Patton gives the El Paso economy a grade of "B" for its performance during the deep global recession.
The local economy is doing better than the economy in many other places in the country, Patton said, but is still feeling some effects from the economic downturn, particularly in businesses that are related to the maquiladora sector or that supply it with goods and services.

"Texas in general started feeling the effects of the recession later than the rest of the country, and El Paso has started seeing some of the effects later than the rest of Texas," Patton said. "With the downturn, El Paso is being impacted in certain sectors, primarily the maquila industry from the financial downturn in the automotive industry. A lot of manufacturing in Mexico is related to the automotive industry, and certainly that sector has seen a downturn." Unlike much of the country, residential home values in El Paso "have not seen a substantial decline in market values that the rest of the country has experienced," Patton added.

Locally owned and operated Bank of the West also continues to lend money to businesses and consumers and has seen its loan portfolio increase by about $97 million in the past 15 months -- a 23 percent increase -- he said. The bank's total loan portfolio is now $520 million. Patton, 59, is a native of Hobbs, N.M., and has worked in banking for nearly 40 years. He started in 1971 as a national bank examiner with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the agency's Denver regional office and worked there for seven years. He came to El Paso in 1978, when he took a job with El Paso National Bank, now Chase Bank. He was in charge of loan reviews at El Paso National for four years. He was also president and CEO of two other local banks before joining Bank of the West when it was founded in 1990.
He was originally Bank of the West's executive vice president of lending, and he became president in 1999. He added the title of CEO in 2007 after Jonathan Rogers, one of the bank's founders and a former mayor of El Paso, died.

Patton sat down for an interview on the economy, the banking industry and his philosophy of doing business.


Q What's helped El Paso during this global economic downturn?


A Certainly, the activity at Fort Bliss has helped continue to stimulate our economy in the short term with the construction activity that's taking place. Our general contractor customers, subcontractors and trade groups have continued to prosper as a result of Fort Bliss activity.

As we continue to get closer to the soldiers actually relocating here, the retail sector of our community should really benefit, too.


Q What's happening as simply as possible with banks during this economic downturn and are community banks such as yours doing better than the large national and international banks?


A Fortunately, for most of the community banks across the country, they have not been significantly impacted by the subprime financial crisis. Most community banks operate like we do -- in the community. We know our customers. We basically gather deposits from the community and lend money back to the community for the community to grow. Conse quently, especially here in El Paso, community banks have not been impacted by a decline in real estate values and did not participate in investing in a lot of exotic investment vehicles.


Q Is your bank still lending money, and is there credit available for consumers and businesses?


A What we've experienced on the lending side is a phenomenal opportunity for us beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008. Several of the regional banks and certainly the large multinational banks have experienced some policy changes in their lending activity, which allowed us to take advantage of new opportunities with customers that were not having their needs satisfied.

As a result, our lending activities are at historic levels. During the past 15 months, we've increased our loan portfolio by approximately $97 million.


Q What would your advice be to a consumer or small-business owner who wants to get some credit during these rough economic times?


A When it comes to consumer loans, it really depends on that consumer's credit rating. Have they had credit in the past and was it handled properly? We calculate debt-to-income ratios, but for the most part, the important thing is to pay your bills on time and maintain a good credit rating.

We are a business bank. The advice I'd give to business owners if it's a new business: It's extremely important to put together a solid business plan that includes what their market is, a marketing plan, capital structure. Don't enter into a new business venture being undercapitalized. Most small businesses fail within the first two years of operation simply because they were undercapitalized.

For existing businesses, one of the most important things a business can do is maintain accurate and timely financial statements. Banks are really hamstrung in assisting businesses with their loan needs if the company hasn't maintained accurate financial statements.

For a small business, it's always a battle. They feel they don't have the money to spend on the accounting piece, because they feel it's more important to spend on the marketing and business development pieces. The accounting end suffers.

What happens is a business operates for two or three years, and they've had some success and they come to the bank. They want to expand, grow their inventory, want to finance some equipment. But they have no history of performance because all their receipts are in a shoebox. With the software that's out there, it's pretty inexpensive for small businesses to maintain their records.


Q What's your business philosophy?


A I'd say my general philosophy in life and in business is to treat people like I'd like to be treated, the old Golden Rule. Our staff believes in that rule. We've been successful in developing our bank because our staff is concerned about providing exceptional service to our customers and treating them how they'd like to be treated themselves. You can't go wrong if you keep that in the front of your mind

The New Government Employees Credit Union Bldg. in El Paso

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafrodflickrmess/

Some pictures of the new El Paso federal courthouse ( nearing completion )

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/rreyes-2010/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/rreyes-2010/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/rreyes-2010/

Interesting thread, interesting projects. Love the new downtown courthouse. Keep up the good work, it's good to hear positive news coming from El Paso. You never really hear about them.

Interesting thread, interesting projects. Love the new downtown courthouse. Keep up the good work, it's good to hear positive news coming from El Paso. You never really hear about them.

Thanks! ELP need look no further than OKC for inspiration! :cheers:

Well our downtown federal courthouse is absolutely hideous, so good thing they obviously didn't look there for inspiration. LOL

from the EP Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_15245840

UTEP forecasts steady El Paso area growth
by Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Posted: 06/08/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT


EL PASO -- This area's economy is expected to see steady expansion in the next 19 years, projects a new long-term economic outlook from the University of Texas at El Paso.

El Paso's economic output is expected to more than double from last year's estimated $20.6 billion to $42.8 billion by 2029, according to "Borderplex Long-Term Economic Trends to 2029."

The outlook is similar to one released last year by UTEP's Department of Economics and Finance.

Per capita income is projected to increase from an estimated $28,131 in 2009 to $67,038 in 2029. El Paso's population is projected to grow from an estimated 751,513 in 2009 to just under 1 million by 2029.

From the El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15361530?source=most_viewed

Cielo Vista Mall adds 3 stores; Michael Kors on the way
by Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Posted: 06/24/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT


EL PASO -- Cielo Vista Mall recently added three new stores and a restaurant. And a Michael Kors luxury sportswear store is expected to open next month, mall officials announced.

Charming Charlie, a national women's accessories boutique chain, opened in early June. Crazy 8, a national children's clothing store chain, and New York Fashion, a locally owned clothing store with women's junior sizes and men's wear, opened in May. Ruby Thai Kitchen, a national Thai restaurant chain, also opened in May.

Victoria's Secret is slated to move into a larger store in the mall next month.

Some of the new stores are going into spaces once occupied by the Ann Taylor clothing store, f.y.e. music store and Walgreens.

From the El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_15370961

El Paso economy ranked No. 2 in Brookings Institution report
By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 06/25/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT
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EL PASO -- El Paso had the second-best economic growth among the 100 largest metro areas in the nation in the first three months of this year, according to the Brookings Institution's latest MetroMonitor. The report takes quarterly looks at the economic conditions of the 100 largest metro areas in the United States.

The latest report showed that El Paso's economic output increased 1.8 percent in the first quarter, ranking second behind Modesto, Calif., which increased economic output by 1.9 percent. El Paso jobs grew by half a percent, and the city ranked seventh in that category. Home prices declined 8.4 percent since the first quarter of 2009, a decline that ranked 50th.

"The recovery is weak and fragile in most places, and more robust in El Paso and many other parts of Texas," said Howard Wial, an economist at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the MetroMonitor study. "The strongest metros seem to be recovering more quickly than other metro areas." Fort Bliss growth was one factor that helped El Paso's economy during the recession, Wial said.

El Paso still hasn't recovered all jobs lost by the recession -- the same for the other 99 metro economies. "El Paso has come pretty close" to recovering all jobs, Wial said.

El Paso had 1.6 percent fewer jobs in the first quarter than in the fourth quarter of 2008, when the recession began in El Paso. It ranked as the second-best job performer during the recession.

However, unemployment remains high in El Paso. Its rate was 9.4 percent in the first quarter. That ranked 46th among the 100.
El Paso has ranked among the nation's 20 strongest metro economies since Brookings began monitoring metro econo mies in June 2009. The latest report has 21 metro areas on the list of strongest economies.

From The El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15415901?source=most_viewed


Possible plans for Asarco site unveiled
By Gustavo Reveles Acosta \ El Paso Times
Posted: 07/01/2010

EL PASO -- A sports arena, an amusement park, a horse racetrack or large manufacturing centers could all be built on the Asarco site and still leave room for commercial and retail space. The 400-acre site -- which also includes land east of Interstate 10 and a large plot north of the former copper smelter -- could also include an international park, walkable neighborhoods and museums.

These were all ideas brought forth by hundreds of El Pasoans who attended work sessions, one-on-one planning meetings and hands-on workshops with the Florida firm in charge of coming up with a zoning plan to help redevelop the old Asarco site. "It looks awesome, awesome. I hope this comes to fruition," said James Lopez, a University of Texas at El Paso student who participated in one of the working sessions. "This is the type of El Paso we all want to see."

The planning firm of Dover Kohl & Partners on Wednesday unveiled its work-in-progress presentation, which included many of the concepts El Pasoans shared in the past 10 days. Artist renderings of office buildings next to boutiques and restaurants were shown, many with the iconic Asarco stack in the background. Planners also showed how a large sports arena or amusement park could fit on the site and still leave room for other commercial and retail development.

Jason King of Dover Kohl said the work in progress helps people visualize the potential of the site, but he reaffirmed that these plans are a draft. "The plan is important, yes. But the reality is that we need to come up with the code to help make it happen," he said. "People don't want a plan, they want a beautiful city." King's firm will work with city planners and elected officials to draft a zoning plan for the Asarco site that will be used to guide development in the area.

Zoning plans are also being drawn up for three transit corridors in need of economic development: Five Points, Oregon Street and Remcon Circle. Ideas for transit include the creation of light rail, the installation of traffic-slowing devices and planting of trees along the street to encourage pedestrian traffic.

Dover Kohl will take all the suggestions back to Florida and develop a zoning code that will be further reviewed by the City Council and the community during a series of hands-on sessions, or charrettes, that will take place in November and January.

The approval of the final plan is to be made by the council in the late summer or early fall of 2011. Planners said it's not too late for people to submit ideas or review the work in progress, which can be found at www.planelpaso.org.

The new Doubletree Hotel Downtown

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From the El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15436888?source=most_viewed



Sun Metro rolls out a new look on buses

By Gustavo Reveles Acosta \ El Paso Times
Posted: 07/04/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT


EL PASO -- Sun Metro buses are getting a makeover, which includes a new paint scheme that incorporates flashier colors and a new logo. Officials with the mass transit system said that as part of a routine maintenance of the buses, each is being given a fresh coat of paint that includes tones of turquoise, green and white. Sun Metro's all-lower-case logo is also prominently displayed on the side of each bus. "We created a new look that people will notice as it rolls by, but more importantly, the public will realize we're not the same old public-transit system of the past," Sun Metro Director Jay Banasiak said. "We wanted the paint scheme to evoke a sharp, clean and modern look. I think we achieved that."

Until now, most Sun Metro buses have had a blue, yellow and white color scheme, and the old Sun Metro logo that features an emerging sun is featured on them. All 159 Sun Metro buses will be repainted. Crews will work on at least one bus every four weeks until all buses are completed. Laura Cruz-Acosta, a spokeswoman for the transit system, said the buses will be repainted as part of a midlife maintenance process, which is done for each bus very six years. Painting each bus will cost about $8,000, she said.

The new color scheme is part of Sun Metro's campaign to rebrand itself as a viable choice for commuters in El Paso. The city government has invested millions of dollars to build modern bus terminals, and the City Council is in the middle of a study that would establish bus rapid transit along several busy corridors. "The new design will serve to promote Sun Metro and encourage the community to do their part to make El Paso the least car-dependent city in the Southwest," Cruz-Acosta said.

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Several Downtown Sun Metro riders had not noticed any of the buses with the new paint. Only two were on the streets as of last week. But some said they look forward to riding in them. "The buses are much better now. They don't break down that much and they all have air conditioning," said Ernestina Peralta, who lives in Segundo Barrio. "I'm glad they're trying to make them more appealing. For many of us, the bus is all we have

From the El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_15435947



The Brewhouse: Falstaff complex for sale; tenants want art center
By Vic Kolenc \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 07/04/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

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EL PASO -- Victor Trujillo just wanted to buy the building housing his 33-year-old produce company. He ended up owning one of El Paso's mostly forgotten industrial icons -- the former Falstaff brewery complex. Now he wants to sell it.

The property, dominated by a four-story building where beer was brewed for about 30 years, is tucked behind Trujillo's produce warehouse and two other produce companies in a low-income neighborhood off Alameda Avenue. The main building, a 75-year-old brick structure at 140 Stevens, is called The Brewhouse. All the brewery equipment was removed and the building converted to huge but crude loft-style apartments and artists' studios. This was done in the late 1970s by the previous owners. Several artists live in the building, which has 11 apartments.

Trujillo, owner of Victor's Produce, bought most of the former brewery property in April 2008. A small part of the complex, where a beer garden and the former home of brewery owner Harry Mitchell stand, was bought by El Paso auctioneer Walter Parker in November 2008. He is renovating that area, at Latta and Frutas, for a rental party complex.

Trujillo said the only reason he bought the brewery buildings was that they came as a package deal with the building housing his produce warehouse, which he wanted to buy for years. He said he paid less than $1 million for the brewery buildings and his produce warehouse at 3701 Alameda. He would not divulge the exact price. "I want to sell the building and my business. I'm getting ready to retire," Trujillo, 73, said last week as he worked behind a desk on the truck dock of his produce company. He is asking $2 million.
The brewery buildings he owns and his produce warehouse were appraised by the El Paso Central Appraisal District at just over $1 million -- $634,114 for the brewery property and $374,741 for the produce warehouse. Parker's beer garden patio with several buildings was appraised by the district at $150,000.

Artists colony

El Paso artists Abel Saucedo, 25, and Reginald Armstrong, 26, were excited to hear that The Brewhouse is for sale. They discovered the hidden treasure last year, and moved into a third-floor apartment in May 2009. They would like a new owner to breathe new life into the complex and turn it into a centralized art community, filled with studios. "This is a perfect space for an artist to live," said Saucedo, an El Paso native, as he stood between a yard-sized trampoline and pool table in the main living area of his industrial-sized apartment. "We can do any kind of art here." Huge oil paintings by Saucedo and Armstrong hang on a wall. Sunlight poured through two windows that stretch from just above the apartment's concrete floor to its about

Victor Trujillo owns the Brewhouse at 140 N. Stevens and Victor's Produce down the street at 3701 Alameda. Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times 20-foot-high concrete ceiling.
Many areas of the complex are showing age. Paint is peeling off exterior walls, and some windows are missing or boarded up. A pile of junk is stored in the front of what is labeled "The Bottle House." The interior hallways of the apartment building are stark, with steep metal stairways and a troublesome freight elevator.

Cheap rents

While Saucedo and Armstrong would like to see upgrades, they also don't want the apartments to become unaffordable for struggling artists. Trujillo said rents range from $350 to $450 a month. Reiner Boehme, 59, has lived in the building's top-floor apartment since 2006 with his wife, Alice Mettey. She dabbles in metal sculpting and jewelry making. Boehme said the building needs more care and maintenance. But Boehme, a retired drummer who works in the El Paso school district mailroom, said he's concerned any major renovation would price him out of the building. "This building is almost 100 years old and sturdy. It will last a long time. I hope they don't knock it down," Boehme said.

Turning breweries into apartments and other uses is not unusual. For example, former Falstaff breweries in New Orleans and St. Louis have been converted into high-end apartment complexes. The former Tivoli Brewery in Denver was converted into a retail and student center as part of a university campus.

Promising future

Bruce Berman, a photographer, has lived in The Brewhouse for 30 years. He said he sees a bright future for it because he expects the Texas Tech medical school-University Medical Center campus, a mile west of the building, to eventually spawn redevelopment in his neighborhood. The brewery complex's value would be enhanced if the train tracks next to it were removed, as has been talked about for years, he said. Trains rumble past the building more than 40 times a day, something that bothers Berman.

Berman said he has told himself a hundred times through the years that he would move, especially in recent years. He sees the building more suited to young, hungry artists than to an aging college teacher. But the unique apartment in a neighborhood within walking distance to the free Bridge of the Americas keeps him there. The location helps Berman focus on his Border Project, a decades-long chronicling of border life. "I find coming home to the 'hood is really good for me," said Berman, who commutes to Las Cruces to teach photojournalism at New Mexico State University. "This keeps me on the ground. I remember where I am." The building has also had an interesting cast of characters pass through it over the years, he said.

Mitchell to Falstaff

The brewery complex was built in the mid-1930s by Harry Mitchell, an Englishman who moved to El Paso in 1912. He was a hotel bartender and opened a restaurant in Juárez before he and his partner bought a brewery at the current site in 1933. They built the complex standing today on about 3 acres. It operated as Mitchell Brewing Co., until 1956, when the Falstaff Brewing Corp., bought it. The brewery closed in 1967. The Falstaff brand, a top beer brand for decades, lived on until 2005, when Pabst Brewing Co. stopped making it.

Three El Paso businessmen bought the brewery complex in the late 1970s and converted it into apartments. Warehouse space was leased, as it is still today. Several businesses also operated there. Now, the only business in the complex is a small furniture manufacturing shop, Great River Furniture, operated by carpenter Ismael Rodriguez. It's tucked into one of the complex's rear storage areas. He said he once had 10 workers and a bigger space, but the recession slowed sales to furniture stores in Dallas, Houston and other cities.

Fun renovation

Richard Price, who operated several El Paso businesses, including a beer distributorship, is one of the three partners who bought the brewery property after it was vacant for about a decade. "It was priced right, and after we went through it and stumbled through all the trash and bird droppings, we saw a lot of potential," said Price, 85. "With very little renovation we could make apartments out of (part of) it. One of the floors had big holes -- 20 feet across -- where the fermenting tanks were. We had to fill those in. "It was an interesting building. We had a lot of fun, and we spent a lot of money" renovating it, Price said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.

More information: www.falstaffbrewing.com

Here's a great link for the Western Refining Mills Plaza District development: http://www.elpasotexas.gov/downtown/investment/mills_plaza_district.htm


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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a14/alandin111/Mills%20Plaza%20District/MillsPlazaMap01.jpg

The New Canutillo High School

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DesertShot

The New El Dorado high School

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Here's a great link for the Western Refining Mills Plaza District development: http://www.elpasotexas.gov/downtown/investment/mills_plaza_district.htm


http://www.elpasotexas.gov/downtown/investment/mills_building/fullsize/Mills_Plaza_1_fs_fs.jpg

I like!

^^ Yeah, Western Refining is doing a virtual downtown makeover all on its own. It takes three large historic buildings off the to-do list and opens the way for others to renovate the rest. Sun Metro is still drawing up a light rail plan for the future while they are already bringing in rapid bus transit. Across the river, Juarez is developing their own system and building a World Trade Center complex. :)

From The El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15452703?source=most_viewed
City agrees to $120M East Side Spaghetti Bowl
By Gustavo Reveles Acosta \ El Paso Times
Posted: 07/07/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT


EL PASO --
The city will be a partner in the $120 million construction of the East Side Spaghetti Bowl.

The City Council on Tuesday agreed to help build up to four ramps that will connect Loop 375 to Interstate 10. Overall, the city will commit $70 million to highway projects, the ramps being the biggest one. The remaining $50 million will come from the state and the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, a public entity that oversees regional transit projects. A private developer will build the ramps. It will be repaid by the state based on the number of vehicles that use the ramps.

City officials said they were happy to sign the agreement, especially because the state's involvement means the project will speed construction. Construction will start this year and take 18 months. "These ramps are a big project for the city and it's important that we get to them as soon as possible," said city Rep. Rachel Quintana, who represents the East Side.

This project is part of the region's $1 billion comprehensive mobility plan that calls for improvements on all major highways in the county. City representatives in the spring created a Transportation Reinvestment Zone to pay for El Paso's share of the project. The special taxing zones will not increase taxes. Rather, they will funnel revenue from property valuation increases into a fund to be used for transportation projects.

Council members have said the city will help pay part of the cost of building overpasses
on I-10 and Loop 375 on the far East Side and the West Side, along with the new Spaghetti Bowl. Terry Quezada of the city's engineering department said Tuesday's vote was practically the last step the city needs to take before construction starts. "We have one more item to bring to the council that is related to an aesthetics project, but other than that we are done with our part," she said.

The regional mobility authority in April picked Americas Gateway Builders, a conglomerate of different construction companies from throughout the region, to build at least the first three ramps. Officials said money for a fourth ramp could become available, and that four more ramps are part of the project design, although they are not funded.

Gustavo Reveles Acosta may be reached at greveles@ elpasotimes

From: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_15486998


Finalizing the MASTER PLAN: Foundation aims to create world-class medical center
By Vic Kolenc \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 07/11/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

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EL PASO -- About 140 acres have been identified as the footprint for the Medical Center of the Americas in Central El Paso. Now the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation wants to put the finishing touches on a 50-year master plan. The dream is to develop a world-class medical complex where health care and research would be done.

It is already anchored by the two-building Texas Tech University Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, which opened a year ago, and county-operated University Medical Center, which is in the midst of a $315 million renovation and expansion. This includes the addition of a $122 million children's hospital. The foundation will hold a four-day planning session at the end of July. That is when the public will be asked to help PlaceMakers, a planning firm, put together the master plan's final pieces.

The foundation spent about $275,000 for the initial master plan and expects to spend an additional $200,000 to complete it. "The first phase was the footprint, and how to organize it," said Emma Schwartz, the foundation president. It provided the conceptual vision of the area. The City Council approved it in October 2008 and added it to the city's comprehensive plan. Now more of the basic planning has to be done, Schwartz said. That includes zoning, architectural requirements and placement of walkways and streets. The final plan also must be taken to City Council for its consideration.

The plan calls for dividing the 140 acres into education, hospital, research, public health and "multi-use" districts. Those are to be linked by a strip of open, green space called "Central Park" and a central, public plaza with meeting spaces, stores and restaurants. "This is a long-term picture. It won't develop exactly like this. The master plan sets the vision, but has enough flexibility to deal with the realities of developing land," Schwartz said. About 60 acres of the area are occupied by the Texas Tech medical school, University Medical Center, a state psychiatric hospital, city Public Health Department offices and the county medical examiner's offices and morgue.

Developing the remaining 80 acres will take about 50 years, according to Lee Burkhart Liu, a California planning firm that wrote the initial master plan. The acreage is in the hands of different owners, including governmental entities and private businesses, and it will take years for properties to be acquired by campus tenants and private developers, Schwartz said.

The not-for-profit foundation will acquire properties when that makes sense and it can get financing to do it, Schwartz said. The foundation bought an office building at 440 Reynolds and is leasing it to Texas Tech, which needed more office space, she said. The 140 acres are to be filled by buildings tied to medical treatment and research, Schwartz said. The foundation will try to develop a biomedical research park, starting with 10 acres of vacant land the city owns along Durazno Avenue, just north of the Texas Tech medical school.

The foundation hopes areas around the medical center will become attractive to private developers, and they will build new retail and housing developments, Schwartz said. Private developers can also build inside the master-planned area, as long as projects fit master plan requirements, she said. Mark Estrada said he has received a lot of phone calls from people interested in 2 acres his family has for lease on Alameda, directly across the street from the two-building Texas Tech medical school. The land is not in the master-planned area.

Someone looking for a possible hotel site and another person looking for a gas station site are among those who have shown interest in the land, said Estrada, who operates Alameda Thrifty Pharmacy at 4900 Alameda. It was started by his now-retired father more than 50 years ago. Many people have wanted to buy the land, but Estrada said his family plans to keep ownership. "I don't anticipate any problems leasing the property; it's just a matter of time," Estrada said. "There's not a whole lot going on their (medical campus) yet.

From the El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15510000?source=most_viewed


Tragedy in Juárez spurs economy in El Paso
By Brandi Grissom / Texas Tribune
Posted: 07/14/2010 08:31:50 AM MDT

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EL PASO - Three twentysomethings sway on stage, belting out a spirited, if off-key, version of Abba's "Dancing Queen." A packed crowd sings along, sipping beer and cocktails as the lyrics scroll by on TV screens across the bar.

It's a Thursday night during Holy Week, and this El Paso karaoke bar, Il Cantö, is one of several new nightclubs and restaurants hopping with patrons from both sides of the Rio Grande. El Paso never used to be so hip; the nightlife in Juárez, just across the border, had always outshined that of its comparatively plain sister city. But as the savage drug war rages on there, both the fun and the business have fled - following the customers. Juarenses don't go out at night. Tourists don't come at all.

With the streets empty and their cash registers quiet, many restaurant, nightclub and small-business owners have moved to El Paso, bringing the sleepy city a vibrant new culture and an economic boost. In a tragic irony, a measure of El Paso's recent fortune results directly from the suffering of its sister city.

The economic jolt from Juárez refugees comes as El Paso reaps the payoff from years of planning and pleading for recognition. Some 24,000 new soldiers are moving to Fort Bliss, and a massive new medical complex is sprouting, along with billions in infrastructure to accommodate the unprecedented growth. "While the rest of the country is calling this the 'Great Recession,' we're calling it the 'recession that's making us great,'" says El Paso Mayor John Cook.

But experts warn that El Paso leaders rely on Juárez's demise at their own peril. Ultimately, as Juárez goes, so goes El Paso, they say. If the Mexican city's expansive maquila industry collapses, it could bury a significant portion of El Paso's newfound prosperity. "El Paso had better be looking at a potential resolution of the problems in Juárez," says Tony Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, "because El Paso is dependent on Juárez - not the other way around."

Exodus

Since drug violence exploded in Juárez in 2008, at least 5,400 people have been killed in the city of 1.3 million, according to the most recent data available from the Chihuahua state attorney general's office in Mexico. It's nearly impossible to precisely count how many Juarenses have fled, or to know exactly why, because the bloodshed in Juárez has reached a crescendo almost simultaneously with the onset of a worldwide recession.

Estimates of the Juárez exodus range from about 100,000 to nearly a half-million. Outgoing Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz says that as many as 20,000 homes in his city have been abandoned.

In the once-bustling Pronaf district, "se vende" (for sale) signs hang from the eaves of shuttered boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs. The same for-sale signs hang from the barred windows of ritzy estates in the upscale Campestre neighborhood. Reyes Ferriz estimates that about 100,000 people have left Juárez. The ailing economy, he says, has driven away more of them than the slaughter. "I think when they get the opportunity to work, they'll probably be back," he says. Other estimates, from UTEP's Payan and a study from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, put the exodus from Juárez at closer to 500,000 people - nearly 40 percent of the population.

Before the daily executions, Juárez was perhaps best known for its massive maquila industry. Factories that produce parts for American products ranging from televisions to cars to computers employ thousands of workers from both sides of the border. About 100,000 workers per year once migrated from southern parts of Mexico to Juárez for factory work, Reyes Ferriz says. Nearly two-thirds of Juárez residents, he says, were born someplace else. But when the international economy soured, so did the maquilas. In a city that once boasted almost no unemployment, Reyes Ferriz says, about 20 percent of Juarenses are out of work.

While some have fled north to seek safety and prosperity in America, many more have gone back to their homes in southern Mexico, Reyes Ferriz says. There, they can find support from the families they left behind.

Garden of eating

Before the bloodletting, food and entertainment provided another engine for the Juárez economy, in places frequented by Americans, including many El Pasoans - who considered Juárez just another neighborhood in their binational community. Now, the faces that remain in the Mercado and Pronaf districts are primarily those of Juarenses. And they can be seen only in daylight.

But at 9 o'clock on a Thursday night in El Paso's Union Plaza, John Geske's new restaurant, The Garden, teems with young people sipping mojitos and margaritas and sharing colorful sushi rolls. The band plays a Sade cover as men in designer jeans and women in shiny tops tap out texts on smartphones. "We've gained so much momentum," Geske says, setting aside his beer to chat. Gone are the days when Geske, like so many El Pasoans, partied in Juárez. "It's like the wild, wild west over there," he says.

That's been good for business here. Saturdays at The Garden are slammed, as is lunch every day. Even with the increased traffic, though, Geske says restaurants and clubs in El Paso will never be able to replicate the nightlife in Juárez. Part of the allure was the service, bred from a system in which workers made only tips. Staff rushed to open doors and plop fresh drinks in front of customers before they had to ask, a luxury El Paso business owners could never afford to recreate.

But that hasn't slowed the blossoming of El Paso's nightlife. Upscale clubs and restaurants like Maria Chuchena, Aroma and Il Cantö, have moved from Juárez to El Paso. David Maese and his business partner closed their karaoke bar in Juárez and reopened Il Cantö near the UTEP campus last fall. The club plays almost exclusively Mexican music - catering to the many Juarenses who now come to El Paso to party because it's too scary to venture out at night at home. A few blocks away on Mesa Street is Aroma Restaurant, where Luis Martinez welcomes guests in the dark, candle-lit dining room. "Here in El Paso, especially for the restaurant business, it's good lately," he says. "Any kind of business in Juárez is difficult to operate now."

Executive immigration

The economic boost transcends the party scene, says Richard Dayoub, CEO of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce. He estimates that about 30,000 Juarenses have moved here. "They're lawyers, accountants; they're business owners who run their businesses by computer, by telephone, or both, and manage their operations from here for safety reasons," Dayoub says.

Business owners can't go to work in Juárez without running the risk of getting kidnapped or shot. And it's not just the cartels. A secondary criminal element has sprouted in the chaos, kidnapping and carjacking with impunity while Mexican military and police are tied up fighting (or cooperating with) the cartels. "That has become more than a cottage industry," he says. "We're talking about a lot of people and a lot of money."

Cindy Ramos-Davidson, CEO of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says she's seen about a 40-percent increase in clients from all over Mexico. "We're seeing a lot of family-owned companies that want to [move to the U.S.] for their families," she says.

Ramos-Davidson estimates she's seen about 400 new small businesses, each bringing about five to 10 job opportunities, though its unclear whether the jobs are permanent. Many Mexican business owners, she says, are keeping their shops south of the river in hopes of returning when security and the economy there improve. "It's not like El Paso is going to be dependent on Mexican business," she says.

Meanwhile, El Paso enjoys an unprecedented growth spurt for reasons having nothing to do with the troubles to the south. Some 24,000 new soldiers, along with their families, are being stationed at the Army's Fort Bliss. The base was among the biggest winners in the nation after the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decision to rearrange military forces around the world. The new troops will boost the base's economic impact on El Paso from $1.5 billion per year to more than $5 billion.

Another $1.5 billion in economic impact, and some 500 new jobs, are expected from the new four-year medical school, the Texas Tech University Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, where the first class of doctors started school last fall. The city won state investment for the project in 2007 after nearly a decade of pressuring state lawmakers.

Because of its relatively low unemployment and solid housing market, El Paso was ranked the 11th most recession-resilient city in America by the Brookings Institute last month. The new troops and their families, along with the Juárez refugees, Dayoub says, filled apartments to a 98-percent occupancy rate, and the city needs some 6,000 units to accommodate new residents. "Sadly, it's been good for El Paso at the expense of Mexico, and I mean that sincerely. I think it's tragic," Dayoub says. "It's destroying their economy, and, however inadvertent, however unintended, there's a positive benefit to El Paso's economy."

Intertwined fates

That benefit is hard to quantify, but most agree it represents a sizeable factor in a much larger expansion. "It's temporary, it's partial - and it's rather small compared to how El Paso would profit if Juárez ever recovered," says UTEP's Tony Payan. He worries that the violence will lead to a collapse of the maquilas in Juárez. The city has 300 manufacturing facilities that make parts and products, primarily for U.S. companies.

Nearly a quarter of all trade between the U.S. and Mexico crosses through the El Paso/Juárez border ports, according to the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation. The maquilas employed more than 168,000 workers from both sides of the border in 2006. Since then, though, the facilities have laid off some 40,000 to 60,000 workers. "When that industry collapses, then El Paso is dragged down," Payan says.

But that's not likely to happen, says Alan Russell, president and CEO of Tecma Group, which has 4,000 employees in 20 maquilas in four Mexican cities, including Juárez. Job losses at the facilities, he says, have nothing to do with the Mexican drug war and everything to do with the U.S. economic downturn. Nearly one-third of the maquilas in Juárez produce parts for the U.S. automotive industry. "There's an old saying that when the U.S. gets a cold, Mexico gets the flu," Russell says. "But the U.S. got worse than a cold, so the economic impact in Mexico has just been horrific."

Maquila employees have not been the targets of cartel violence, Russell says. Unlike many small business owners, maquila owners don't live in Juárez, so they can't be easily followed and extorted. It helps, too, that the companies are primarily American-owned, making criminals wary of potential repercussions. What's more, the factories are restoring some of their workforce, now that the U.S. economy has started to recover.

Russell hopes an economic upturn in Juárez will eventually help reduce the bloodshed. If more people have jobs and steady income, Russell says, fewer will turn to the drug trade. When that happens, Juarenses will return home, and they'll bring back with them that raucous nightlife, those famous restaurants and the cultural and economic benefits that have migrated across the border to El Paso. "Everything goes in cycles," he says.

This cycle, though, may take some time to run its course, says UTEP's Payan. As long as the cartels battle one another and the government to preserve their drug profits, and as long as the Mexican government proves powerless to stop them, the bloodshed will continue. "The city will have to be rebuilt from the ground up," he says, "and hopefully Juarenses have courage to rebuild it.

Do you have anything on the transit oriented urban village the city is planning?

Do you have anything on the transit oriented urban village the city is planning?

Are you thinking of the proposal for the ASARCO site? That one is still up in the air. Several different ideas have to be sorted out and a final decision made by the city. The transit-oriented village would require lots of environmental remediation because of lead at that brownfield so it's not assured of being the winning proposal...

Well I hope they can work something out. Sounds like a good plan and I'd like to see El Paso rise.

Hey Desert thanks for starting this thread! I haven't been to/through the El Paso area in about 16 years so it's good to see all the projects they have going.

^^

You're welcome! And thanks to the Mods for the sticky!! :banana:

http://www.wellsfargoplazaelpaso.com/images/wells_side_image.jpg

From: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_15863941


El Paso per capita income increases as nation sees decrease

By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/23/2010 11:24:53 AM MDT

EL PASO - El Paso's per capita income increased 2 percent last year, while the nation as a whole saw a 2.8 percent decrease, according to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Even with the increase, El Paso's per capita income, $28,638 in 2009, remained in the bottom 25 in a ranking of 366 metro areas. El Paso ranked No. 342. Per capita income is total personal income of an area divided by population.

El Paso's total personal income - residents' income from all sources - increased 3.8 percent to $21.5 billion last year. The El Paso area was one of 134 metro areas with an increase. Nationwide, personal income declined 1.8 percent in 2009

From: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_16351139

Milken recognizes El Paso for job growth

By Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
Posted: 10/16/2010

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5031613011_1289c442a3_z_d.jpg

The Milken Institute, an independent think tank, has ranked El Paso ninth of the 200 largest U.S. metro areas for growth in jobs and wages, along with technology performance.

The institute found that jobs in El Paso grew 2.5 percentage points faster than the national average. On the downside, El Paso's unemployment rate of 10.2 percent was higher than the national rate of 9.5 percent.

Another study released this week by a national business news site found that El Paso had experienced a faster income growth than any other metropolitan area in the United States. But the city still ranked 99th of the 100 largest U.S. metro areas because its per-capita income was $28,638 a year.

The Milken Institute found that construction from the expansion at Fort Bliss was the main economic driver in El Paso, with the post growing to 25,000 soldiers. The portion of federal jobs in El Paso has grown from about 2 percent to about 8 percent since 2004.

Another industry fueling El Paso's economy is the maquiladora industry -- especially in electronics, where operations have picked up again in Juárez. About 18 percent of the maquilas in Juárez are electronics plants, said the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp. Auto-related demand and production have also recovered somewhat in Juárez despite the drug-cartel violence there.

The Milken Institute also found a 47 percent increase in trade in May compared with May 2009. Truck crossings along the border had gone up 22.7 percent, according to the economic development corporation.

Texas metro areas dominated the rankings of best-performing cities by the Milken Institute. Five of the top 10 positions were in Texas. They were Fort Hood, Austin, McAllen, El Paso and Houston.

.

EP Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/living/ci_16479017)

Growing power: El Paso's economic performance makes lists

By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 10/31/2010
http://www.armytimes.com/xml/news/2009/07/army_mall_071909w/071909at_blissmall_800.JPG
Freedom Crossing

After years of being ranked toward the bottom of economic vitality lists, the Sun City has landed toward the top of several recent economic barometers.

*The Milken Institute, a California think tank, ranked El Paso's economy as the ninth-best-performing economy among 200 metro areas in its latest Best-Performing Cities Index, released this month.

*The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, has ranked El Paso as one of the 20 strongest metro economies in the nation since it began tracking metro economies in June 2009.

*Portfolio.com, a national business news site, this month ranked El Paso as having the strongest per-capita income growth in the past 25 years among the nation's 100 largest metro areas.
So do these rankings mean El Paso has become an economic powerhouse? Or did El Paso just hold its own during the Great Recession while the economies in many other cities tumbled?

"El Paso has been more recession-proof" than many other places, but the fact that it's ninth on the Best-Performing Cities Index doesn't mean it has as powerful or as rich an economy as bigger metro areas, such as New York and Washington, D.C., said Kevin Klowden, managing economist at the Milken Institute and co-author of the Best-Performing Cities study. Fort Bliss expansion and trade with Mexico, which came out of the recession better than the United States despite the chaos in that country, helped the El Paso economy during the recession, Klowden said.

William "Bill" Gilmer, an economist and vice president in charge of the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said the spending for construction at Fort Bliss, UTEP and the Texas Tech medical center was "kind of like our own stimulus spending bill" and set El Paso's economy apart from much of the rest of the nation during the recession. "We have performed better recently, but there's not a fundamental change in the (El Paso) economy," Gilmer said. "El Paso is still tied to manufacturing, which is still one of the most cyclical pieces of the U.S. economy. "The next time there is a recession, we probably won't be that lucky," Gilmer said.

Howard Wial, an economist at the Brookings Institution, said the fact that El Paso had no housing boom or bust like many other metro areas, and isn't tied to the auto industry as is the Midwest are also reasons it's topping economic performance lists. Brookings' quarterly Metro Monitor reports gauge how badly places were hit by the recession and how well they have recovered, Wial said. It doesn't gauge income growth or whether an area is poor or rich, he noted.

Mike Santamaria, vice president of Mountain Vista Builders, an El Paso homebuilder, said El Paso builders didn't have the business seen in Phoenix and Florida when those areas were booming, but "we didn't come down as far either." "Most (El Paso) builders felt the recession. But compared to other places, we did much better," Santamaria said.

Tom Fullerton, an economics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said that the recent rankings are good news, but that they don't mean the local economy has leapfrogged the national economy. "In fact, household incomes in El Paso continue to lag those of the rest of the country by a fairly wide margin and much more work needs to be done in order to reduce that gap," he said.

That's driven home by Portfolio.com's ranking. While El Paso's per-capita income grew 212 percent in the last 25 years, according to its analysis of federal data, El Paso's per capita income of $28,638 in 2009 ranked 99th lowest among the nation's 100 largest metro areas.

The Milken Institute index ranks cities based on short-term, and long-term job and wage growth, and on high-tech output. El Paso didn't rank in the top 10 in any individual category. It's best showing was job growth from 2008 to 2009 -- 2.3 percent above the national average for that period. That was 17th best in the nation. El Paso is below the national average in the amount of high-tech industries located here, but high-tech output has been growing, Klowden said. El Paso's high-tech output grew 13.5 percent more than the national average during 2004-2009, the Milken study found.

High tech can help an area grow, but in the end, it's about job growth, Klowden said. "If you're looking to get hired, it's easier to do that in a city that is doing well. But just because the economy is doing well, doesn't mean it will have a job you're looking for," Klowden noted. Someone looking for a job in finance, for example, may want to head to New York because that's a financial center, he said.

In the first Milken Institute study in 2002, El Paso ranked 136th, and then 174th in 2003. It wasn't until 2008, when the nation was in the grips of the Great Recession, that El Paso climbed to 37th. It ranked 14th last year.

Bob Cook, president of the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., or REDCo, El Paso's industrial recruiter, said the high rankings are a recruitment tool. "They help tell our story," Cook said. They're an "indication that El Paso is a great place to do business."

But the rankings don't bring calls from companies.

"In the 25 years I've been in economic development, I never remember one of these studies generating inquiries from companies," Cook said. But, he added,when data from the studies are shown to companies, the reactions are usually positive.

Since there is so much going on in the El Paso area how's it looking as far as population growth and future projections?

Notre Dame and Miami will play at this year's Hyundai Sun Bowl! (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_16780531?source=most_viewed)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fe/Hyundai_sun_bowl_2010_logo.png/150px-Hyundai_sun_bowl_2010_logo.png

http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/ConfUSA/UTEP/front.jpg

Since there is so much going on in the El Paso area how's it looking as far as population growth and future projections?

Population growth is accelerating due to the infusion of 25,000 Army soldiers plus their families into Ft. Bliss. Additionally, there has been a huge migration to El Paso from troubled CD Juarez. The city could easily hit 750,000 by 2020.

Found this on the web!

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Didn't know there was a thread about El Paso, going to start posting here too.

Didn't know there was a thread about El Paso, going to start posting here too.

Yay! :cheer:

Some pics I took yesterday:

@utep

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3700.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3701.jpg

@Downtown - New Parking Garage

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3702.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3703.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3704.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3706.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3714.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3719.jpg

more downtown:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3705.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3707.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3715.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3713.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3718.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3716.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3712.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3711.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3710.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3709.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3708.jpg

^^

Nice!! :cheers:

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_16868000)

El Paso lags in 3Q metro data
By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 12/16/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

El Paso's economic growth slowed further in the third quarter, according to the Brookings Institution's latest MetroMonitor report, released Wednesday. El Paso's economic output increased 0.2 percent in the July-September quarter, Brookings reported. It grew 0.8 percent in the second quarter, and 1.8 percent in the first quarter, according to earlier Brookings reports.

El Paso's economic output ranked 84th among 100 large metro areas in the third quarter. The 100 metro areas combined had average economic growth of 0.8 percent in the quarter. El Paso jobs decreased 1.8 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter, ranking last among the 100 metro areas in the Brookings report. El Paso's housing prices declined 1.5 percent in the quarter, ranking 98th.

Despite the poor quarter, Brookings continued to rank El Paso as one of the 20 strongest metro economies in the country based on data going back to when the recession began in the fourth quarter of 2008. El Paso has ranked in the top 20 since Brookings began tracking metro economies in June 2009.

Tom Fullerton, an economics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said, "The local economy is moving slowly. Part of that is due to the completion of a number of construction projects at Fort Bliss, and part is due to weaknesses in other areas, such as state government activities declining."

Howard Wial, an economist at Brookings and co-author of the MetroMonitor report, said El Paso employment in the third quarter fell to its lowest level since the recession began in El Paso in late 2008. "It's too soon to say if it indicates anything for the long term," he said. "The recession started pretty late in El Paso, and the decline was pretty modest. For a while, it looked like the region had bottomed out," Wial said. But El Paso's economy performed poorly in the third quarter, he said. Whether El Paso gets knocked out of Brookings top 20 list will hinge on how El Paso and the other metro areas perform in future quarters, he said.

Nationwide, most metro areas were "stuck in neutral, with no clear indication of any forward movement in the near future," Wial said. Most metro areas are "not on the road to long-term sustained recovery, but most are not in danger of falling into a double-dip recession," he said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.

More information: www.brookings.edu/metro/MetroMonitor.aspx

Pics from yesterday:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3760.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3758.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3759.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3757.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/sup3r_x17/DSCN3755.jpg

Nice!! (p.s. a good place to post non-development related El Paso pictures is here: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1116817 :) )

LOL at the "Sun Bowl"! :lol: I was a few miles north and we had sun on Friday but poor El Paso was just cloudy and snowy for the biggest game in Sun Bowl history! Still, a record 54,000+ fans got to see a pretty good game.

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_16988756)

2011 outlook: El Paso's economy, job market expected to grow

by Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/02/2011

http://coprod.constraintsolving.com/imgs/utep5.jpg
El Paso's economy weathered the recession better than many other metro economies in the country -- ranking as one of the 20 strongest metro economies in the country by the Brookings Institution since June 2009.

But it barely grew in the second half of 2010.

This year, the El Paso economy is expected to perform better than it did last year and to grow at the same pace as, or better than, the national economy, largely because of the continued influx of soldiers at Fort Bliss, according to UTEP's latest economic forecast, "Borderplex Economic Outlook: 2010-2012." It was released last week.

El Paso's economy, as measured by total personal income, is expected to grow to $23.4 billion in 2011. "In 2010, the recession finally caught up to El Paso, and unfortunately by the end of the year, the unemployment rate went back to double digits for the first time in more than a decade," said Tom Fullerton, an economics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, and co-author of the Borderplex forecast.

The outlook for 2011 is "moderately favorable, and the job market likely will slowly improve throughout the year," Fullerton said.

Military employment will lead the way, the UTEP forecast predicts. However, the unemployment rate is projected to remain high because job growth will not keep pace with growth of the local work force, the forecast predicts. The annual unemployment rate is projected at 9.7 percent in 2011.

El Paso's economic output is projected to grow 3.3 percent this year, better than the annual growth rate estimated at 2.3 percent in 2010, according to the UTEP forecast.

El Paso's economy will equal or exceed national economic growth, depending on the forecast. Fannie Mae, a mortgage finance company, is projecting a growth rate of 3.4 percent for the U.S economy this year; Wells Fargo Securities, 2.6 percent; and IHS Global Insight, a Boston economic research firm, 2.4 percent.

Robert "Bill" Gilmer, an economist and vice president in charge of the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said he expects El Paso's economy to grow at a faster rate than the national economy in 2011.
Fort Bliss construction boosted El Paso's economy during the recession, and now the stimulus will shift to the influx of soldiers, which will boost housing, retail and services associated with population growth, Gilmer said.

The Fort Bliss soldier population is expected to grow from about 25,000 now to about 28,000 by the end of 2011, said Jean Offutt, a Fort Bliss spokeswoman. The troop population is expected to grow to 34,000 by the end of 2013, she said.

Maquila boost

Gilmer said renewed growth of the maquila, or manufacturing, industry in Juárez will also boost the El Paso economy this year. The maquila growth is occurring despite the drug-related violence in Juárez, he noted.

Gilmer is uncertain that UTEP's projection for job growth of 1.8 percent in 2011 will materialize. Employers are showing a reluctance to hire because of the uncertainty over federal policies for health care and taxes, he said. Companies "don't know what an employee will cost them," he said.

Housing bright spot

El Paso County's housing industry, a bright spot during the recession, is expected to be strong this year, according to the UTEP forecast.

Starts of single-family housing are projected to increase 7.8 percent to 3,156 homes. That's still below peak years of 2005 and 2006, when single-family housing starts were above 4,000, according to the UTEP report. Apartment starts are projected to increase 30.1 percent this year to 1,030 units -- the most units beginning construction in one year in at least a decade -- the UTEP forecast shows.

Greg Bowling, vice president of Tropicana Homes, a large El Paso homebuilder, and new president of the El Paso Association of Builders, said he agrees with the UTEP forecast of an upswing in single-family home construction. El Paso builders cleared home inventories in 2010, so home construction should increase this year, Bowling said.

Most of the soldiers moving into El Paso won't be buying homes, but they are filling apartments, Bowling said. As apartments become harder to find, pressure is put on people who can afford to buy a home to make a home purchase, he said. That should help the home sales market this year, he said.

One concern is whether mortgage rates, which hovered below 5 percent in 2010, will continue to remain at low levels, Bowling said. "El Paso's housing market is so interest-rate driven," Bowling said. "But I don't see anything drastic occurring" with mortgage rates, he said.

Retail increase

The retail sector is projected to grow 4.6 percent in 2011, slightly better than in 2010, according to the UTEP forecast. Total retail sales are projected to reach almost $10 billion this year.

Furniture stores are projected to have the largest growth in sales. Restaurants are also projected to do well. "Overall stability in the regional economy should translate into improved retail performance in both 2011 and 2012," Fullerton said. Downtown stores may be hurt by only a small projected increase in bridge crossings at the Santa Fe bridge in the Downtown, Fullerton said.

Michael Breitinger, executive director of the Central Business Association, said Downtown retailers have been reporting sales below 2009, which was not a good year either. Downtown stores rely on shoppers from Mexico.

Pedestrian lines going into El Paso remain long and slow at the Santa Fe bridge "despite what the feds report," Breitinger said. "That's a disincentive" for Juárez residents to go Downtown to shop, he said.

Nice!! (p.s. a good place to post non-development related El Paso pictures is here: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1116817 :) )

LOL at the "Sun Bowl"! :lol: I was a few miles north and we had sun on Friday but poor El Paso was just cloudy and snowy for the biggest game in Sun Bowl history! Still, a record 54,000+ fans got to see a pretty good game.

Lol, I noticed the other thread the next day after posting the pics :bash:

El Paso's faded corridors: Officials hope new city plan will revitalize roads

by Gustavo Reveles Acosta \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/02/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

Dyer Street -- The growth of Fort Bliss contributed to the economic boom that brought new shops along this roadway to the sprawling Northeast. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)

They are the streets that brought people into El Paso and for decades they reigned as the commercial corridors that fueled the economy.

The roadways -- Mesa Street to the west, Dyer Street to the northeast, Montana Avenue to the east and Alameda Avenue to the valley -- flourished in the first half of the 20th century, only to bust with the advent of interstate travel in El Paso.

"If you lived outside of Downtown El Paso, these streets were not only your way in and out of town," said Nestor Valencia, who worked as a city planner over four decades starting in the 1950s. "Before the freeway was built, these streets were how you got your business done. They were busy corridors full of life."

Municipal government officials said decades of neglect have sucked the economic life out of much of these corridors, and they hope a new city plan now under way will help bring them back.

To do that, though, the city and its taxpayers will have to be willing to invest unprecedented amounts of public money into a vision many see as unreachable.

"I don't know how you turn this row of ugly used-car lots into something so beautiful that people want to live in it," said Mague Vega, who has lived off Alameda for nearly 50 years. "If anyone call pull it off, it will be a miracle."

City Manager Joyce Wilson said no miracles are needed, just time, money and public interest in getting the work done.

The past

Alameda was the main highway into El Paso from the east before I-10 was built.

Until then, the quaint road was lined with trees and picturesque motels that took travelers through the towns of Ysleta and Ascarate before hitting the city.

Valencia, who grew up in Ysleta, said Alameda was a busy street filled with stores, offices and public spaces, farther down in the Lower Valley.

"Up until the 1950s, urbanization didn't even reach Fox Plaza. There was nothing past Thomason," now the University
Alameda Avenue -- This was the main highway into El Paso from the east and Lower Valley before I-10 was built. It is now fronted by used-car dealers and small businesses. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)
Medical Center, he said. "In fact, there was very little between Ysleta and El Paso, other than farming land."

The urbanized part of Alameda, though, was one of the most vibrant commercial centers outside of the Downtown.

"Sure, it was a highway, but one with storefronts on it. People stopped by to shop and then grab a bite to eat and even a nightcap. It was all right there," Valencia said.

Dyer Street, too, was a hot spot of activity to the sprawling Northeast.

The growth of Fort Bliss contributed to the economic boom that brought new shops to Dyer.

"Dyer was perhaps the most diverse economic area in El Paso for a while because it served such a unique clientele," Valencia said. "The military personnel came
Montana Avenue -- Montana avenue near downtown El Paso has been designated a Historic District. The street runs from the Downtown to far East El Paso. ( Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)
from all over, and they brought to Dyer a unique feel that worked well for many, many years."

Valencia said the gateway to Dyer was Montana, a street that for decades was the home of El Paso's elite. In its heyday, Montana was also the center of new retailing in the city, with shops springing up along the Five Points area.

It wasn't until after the 1950s that development of Montana went past the Chelmont subdivision and the corridor became exclusively a commercial center instead of an area that mixed businesses with homes.

But it's the development of Mesa as a commercial corridor that most surprised Valencia.

"When I first started working for the city in the late 1950s, Mesa was a small two-lane street with little
Mesa Street -- Mesa street now has the healthiest economy and is the corridor that serves the West Side. It is surrounded by shopping, workplaces and residences. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)
development there," he said.

"Most people saw Doniphan as the key player for the West Side."

In fact, little construction even took place along Mesa past the Kern Place area, he said.

"Doniphan was the road that took you to El Paso from the west, and you can still see semblances of that in the old trading posts that still house businesses today," Valencia said. "Still, it's important to talk about Mesa, because of all the corridors, it is the one that has the healthiest economy and it's the corridor that -- for better or worse -- now serves the West Side."

The present

City Manager Wilson understands that the state of Alameda, Montana, Mesa and Dyer could be "a whole lot better."

"They're not dead or beyond repair, but for the most part they're on life support," she said. "They need a lot of work, and we need a plan to spell out exactly what needs to get done to get there."

Alameda is no longer the tree-lined road that greeted visitors into El Paso. It is now more widely known for its used-car lots and run-down businesses. The commercial outlook along Dyer is ever grimmer, and a long stretch of the corridor seems to be boarded up and out of business.

Attempts to revive once-vibrant shopping centers like Northgate Mall have been futile, and most of the retail activity is now concentrated along Trans Mountain Road.

Montana, the longest of these four corridors, has lost most of its residential aspect and now houses myriad offices in its older stretches.

The parts that were developed after the 1960s have a busy commercial scene, though some parts are beginning to show their age. And on the East Side, Montana serves more as a highway than a commercial corridor with only a few shopping centers popping up along the long stretch between Global Reach Drive and Loop 375.

Mesa is the anomaly

Except for the part of the street south of the Downtown, Mesa's economic outlook is positive.

The areas around the University of Texas at El Paso, Sunland Park Drive and Remcon Circle have thriving businesses, and efforts to create new mixed-used development -- where shopping, work and residential life mix -- are well under way.

"There's no doubt that this is the one corridor that is alive and well," Wilson said. "This doesn't mean that we shouldn't place some focus on it. We need to make sure that we help it develop in a meaningful and smart way, or risk it go the way other commercial corridors have gone."

The future

The City Council is betting on mass transit to be the vehicle for redevelopment along Alameda, Montana, Dyer and Mesa, and the council is investing millions of dollars to make that happen.

So far, the city has already committed to either fund or seek funding to create rail-like bus rapid transit along Alameda and Mesa. The Alameda corridor has a price tag of about $30 million and could be ready for passengers as soon as next year.

The Mesa corridor will cost about $21 million and will come online soon after Alameda's opens. Plans for Dyer and Montana are under way, but no funding has been committed.

Still city officials said bus rapid transit, also known as BRT, throughout the city is a certainty.

"BRT is the catalyst for change along these streets. We can't go back on our word to create these corridors," said city Rep. Emma Acosta. "It's truly my belief that BRT is going to lead to so many more improvements. We're going to look back in the future and see that this was the point from which we moved El Paso in the right direction."

Acosta and the city's urban planners are relying on years of studies by several groups that show vibrant mass transit systems that attract both blue-collar and white-collar workers are avenues for economic development. In Dallas, for example, there has been $3.3 billion in new property development and redevelopment around new Dallas Area Rapid Transit lines in the pasta 10 years.

Portland, Ore., too, has seen nearly $1 billion in redevelopment along its one revamped mass-transit line.

"We expect BRT to be the start of a mass-transit system that could one day include light rail, streetcars and other commodities that would make us the least car-dependent city in the southwest," Wilson said. "BRT will bring people to the core of the city, and the businesses and shops will follow."

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17039824)

Union Pacific to expand: $400 million railroad hub proposed for Santa Teresa

by Ramon Bracamontes \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/08/2011

SANTA TERESA -- Union Pacific is poised to expand its operations in the El Paso region by building a new $400 million railroad hub in Santa Teresa that is expected to provide Southern New Mexico with a $500 million economic boost, officials said Friday.

Construction of the hub will begin this year if the New Mexico Legislature approves a locomotive fuel tax exemption for Union Pacific.

The company's plans were announced Friday by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez during a press conference with Union Pacific officials in Santa Teresa. Neither the governor nor Union Pacific said how much that tax exemption was worth. They said only that Union Pacific pays a lot in fuel tax in New Mexico.

Martinez said she is already working with the Legislature to approve the tax break. "I am here to honor a commitment the state of New Mexico made three years ago," Martinez said. She said she is hopeful the Legislature will approve the tax exemption, which will allow "Union Pacific to start building and New Mexicans to start working."

The railroad and New Mexico officials originally announced plans for the project in 2006. It was halted after Union Pacific encountered problems acquiring the land, and the effort slowed when the national economy stalled.

Now that Union Pacific is prepared to spend $3.2 billion to improve its operations nationwide, the company is ready to invest in Santa Teresa, said Aaron Hunt, spokesman for Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific.

Construction of the facility is expected to create 3,000 jobs from 2011 to 2015. About 300 permanent jobs will remain after the hub is built.
The company's plans include moving some of its fueling and maintenance operations from El Paso to Santa Teresa.

However, Union Pacific will keep its El Paso rail yards and its cross-border rail service between El Paso and Juárez, Hunt said. "We are not leaving El Paso," Hunt said. "To be able to expand, we need to do it here. Everything you see in El Paso will remain. And everyone who has a job in El Paso right now will have one in 2015."

The only major change is that some of those employees may have to work in Santa Teresa, instead of Downtown El Paso.

Sunland Park Mayor Martin Resendiz said the new hub will go a long way toward improving the economy in his city and in Santa Teresa. "We've been waiting for years for this project to begin," Resendiz said. "It will help the entire region."

Union Pacific's new hub is about one mile northwest of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and adjacent to the Verde Realty industrial park that abuts the port of entry. The 23-acre hub includes a new fueling facility, crew-change buildings and a switch yard.

Verde Realty official Justin Ruby did not want to comment on what the hub means for the commercial parks, its tenants and future development. "We are very excited to have Union Pacific here and next to us," Ruby said.

For years, Verde Realty has been working with New Mexico's elected officials to expand and develop the area around the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. In 2005, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman secured $14 million to aid in the construction of roads leading to the Union Pacific facility, which has been on hold for the past few years. That money remains available for the project.

Bingaman also worked with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to expedite a land exchange with the New Mexico State Land Office in order to provide the land needed for the facilities. "This inland port will give New Mexico a stake in one of the most important rail corridors in the country," Bingaman said. "In the long term it will enhance New Mexico's standing as a great place for commerce."

This could be the final push needed to redevelop the railyards in El Paso into a massive commercial and possibly residential district downtown. It could easily double the size of Downtown El Paso if fully redeveloped.

From: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17080573


'Smart' design would contain sprawl in El Paso
by Chris Roberts \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/13/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

New neighborhoods with the look and feel of Kern Place or Sunset Heights could be built in El Paso with the use of a new "sustainable" development style, a city official said Wednesday.

Conventional building codes isolate land uses such as residential and business, and would not allow the mix seen in those neighborhoods, said Mathew McElroy, deputy director of the city's Planning and Economic Development Division. Those conventional codes have resulted in sprawling subdivisions full of dead-end cul-de-sacs where people must drive to strip malls to find businesses and other services, he said.

The new style, called "SmartCode," has never been used in El Paso, even though the city approved it in 2008. McElroy on Wednesday made a presentation to the Public Service Board, which manages thousands of acres surrounding El Paso. "Conventional sprawl-type development," said McElroy, "is very expensive and it's dangerous."

SmartCode is being considered for the 1,500-acre Painted Dunes development, and on Tuesday the El Paso City Council decided to begin applying it to about 1,800 acres slated for development in the Northwest Master Plan. The new style could provide a way to preserve expansive views of the Franklin Mountains around Trans Mountain Road, which some area residents have vocally supported. The current master plan preserves arroyos, but it otherwise uses conventional building codes and would create a concentrated stretch of commercial development on the road's lower reach that open-space advocates say will obstruct the view and cause other problems.

During the Tuesday discussion, City Council members criticized sprawl on the East Side and suggested that SmartCode could be broadly applied to the 26,000 acres of city-owned land surrounding El Paso if it is to be developed. "We can't tell the private property owners that are downwind, 'Don't develop, or develop it this way,' " said city Rep. Susie Byrd. "I think we are leading by example."

SmartCode could be used to create neighborhoods that encourage walking with short blocks and centrally located parks, all connected with a grid of roads that disperse traffic, McElroy said. A combination of residential, office and retail spaces in the neighborhoods would cut down on the need for driving, he said. Public spaces would be designed to create the feeling of an outdoor living room, for example, with access to an appropriate mix of businesses.

In general, the new style increases density in populated areas while dedicating more land to parks and open space. Benefits would include less potentially dangerous traffic congestion and more opportunities for exercise, said McElroy. Development also can be adjusted to take advantage of solar energy and terrain features that control runoff, which often results in cost savings, he said. Although there have been poorly designed communities that failed, McElroy said, there is a growing acceptance of SmartCode benefits.

However, developers, operating in a poor economic climate, have been reluctant to adopt the new style, said El Paso Mayor John Cook. He said the city should support a project in which it assumes some, or all, of the financial risk to jump-start the process. Public Service Board members who spoke on the issue said they needed to know more before making any decisions. They expressed concerns about whether there would be demand for such properties and whether the board would get top value for land sold with such restrictions. "You've left me with a lot of questions," said board member Maria Teran.

Chris Roberts may be reached at chrisr@elpasotimes.com; 546-6136.

From: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_17045640

Apartment boom in El Paso continues
by Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/09/2011 02:33:26 PM MST

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0108/20110108__0109-E1-apartments~1_VIEWER.jpg

El Paso's apartment building boom continues strong as developers try to meet a growing demand for apartments fueled by the growing influx of soldiers to Fort Bliss. About 1,600 apartment units are expected to be completed this year, and developers have plans in the works for construction this year and early next year on an additional 1,900 units, according to information from developers. More than 900 new apartments opened in 2010.

"El Paso will see construction continue for a while," predicted Kelly Witherspoon, transaction manager in Austin for ARA Apartment Realty Advisors, an Atlanta company that tracks apartment markets nationwide. "Demand is outweighing supply" because of Fort Bliss growth and Mexican nationals moving to El Paso to escape the drug-related violence in Juárez, he said. "El Paso's multifamily market fundamentals (rent growth, occupancies, absorption) are the strongest in the state, and arguably one of the strongest in the nation," Witherspoon said.

El Paso had a 97 percent apartment occupancy rate in the third quarter of 2010, according to ARA's latest El Paso market report. Apartment rents rose 7.7 percent from third quarter 2009 to third quarter 2010, ARA's report shows. Apartment rents averaged $690 in the third quarter, ARA reported. "I think we're going to be in a really tight apartment market for at least the next few years," said Kathy Dodson, director of the city Department of Planning and Economic Development.

City officials determined that El Paso needs to add 8,000 multifamily units from 2009 to 2012 to meet growth at Fort Bliss. That's why the city in 2009 began a program to give property tax rebates to new apartment projects to spur more construction. So far, 15 companies with projects containing 2,905 apartment units have applied for rebates, Dodson reported.

Before the rebate program began, El Paso had only a few hundred apartments under construction, "so this has really worked," Dodson said. The program is scheduled to end Dec. 31, 2013, or when rebates are given for 4,000 units, whichever comes first.

Management Resources Development, or MRD, of East Lansing, Mich., decided to build the 612-unit Van Horne Estates apartment complex in Northeast El Paso -- the second-largest apartment complex in El Paso -- because of Fort Bliss growth and because of the city tax rebates, said John Robison, the company's executive operations manager. "We wouldn't have built without the incentive on taxes. It wouldn't have been feasible to do it," Robison said.

MRD is one of only two out-of-town companies now building apartment projects in El Paso. The other is Acclaim Homes of San Francisco. It began construction last September of a 212-addition to Castilleja, an upscale apartment complex it opened in 2009 with 260 units at 1531 George Dieter on the East Side. Acclaim is looking for a site to build another apartment complex, said Mark Johnson, Acclaim president.

MRD has 162 apartment complexes with 9,850 units in the United States, Robison reported. It has focused on building apartment complexes near military bases in the past two years, he said. It has nine apartment complexes near military bases, including the one its now building at 11611 Dyer, near Trans Mountain Drive.

The first 36 units of Van Horne Estates are expected to open by the end of February, and almost all those units have already been leased, said Chris Escobedo, Van Horne manager. About 400 units are expected to open this year, and the remaining 216 units to be completed in 2012, he said.

The complex consists almost entirely of two-bedroom apartments aimed directly at military families, Escobedo said. Rents will range from $795 to $870 a month. The complex will have two public parks that will be turned over to the city when completed.

The city tax incentives also are important to Bohannon Development of El Paso, the most active apartment developer in the market. "The city property tax rebates are necessary to make the projects economically viable," said Tom Bohannon, company president.

Bohannon Development completed the 431-unit The Bungalows at Hueco Estates on the far East Side late last year. It now has the 250-unit Puerto Villa at Cimarron under construction at Resler and Helen of Troy on the West Side. The first units are expected to open in April, and the complex is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Bohannon said.

It has three other proposed projects with about 1,100 units in its pipeline, Bohannon said. It expects to begin construction in four to five months on a 275-unit apartment complex on Edgemere, east of Hueco Estates. It also has plans for a 500-unit addition to Hueco Estates, with a 300-unit first phase possibly beginning construction in the third quarter, Bohannon said. It also is looking at the possibility of building a 350-unit apartment complex near Resler and Interstate 10, in the Desert Trails subdivision, he said. "We have a lot of plans in the works. If the market softens, we would change our plans," Bohannon said. "We're constantly monitoring the market. We don't think it will be good forever."

John Cullers, an El Paso homebuilder and partner in Monterrey Asset Management, an El Paso partnership building a 208-unit, upscale apartment complex at 1500 Bob Hope on the far East Side, said he hopes the market doesn't get overbuilt. More apartments are needed not only to meet Fort Bliss growth but also to meet growth created by the Texas Tech medical school and the influx of Juárez residents, he said.

The upscale Las Mansiones isn't aimed at military renters, Cullers said. But Monterrey's 160-unit Mountain Vista Apartments, completed in 2009 in Northeast El Paso, has a big percentage of military tenants, he said. Monterrey is also looking at building another apartment complex next year, he said.

Another El Paso company, EPT Land Communities, has the 246-unit The Reserve at Sandstone Ranch complex going up at Sean Haggerty and U.S. Highway 54 in Northeast El Paso, and is waiting for loan approval for a proposed 290-unit project in the Monticello subdivision it is developing along Mesa on the West Side, said David Bogas, director of development for EPT.

Bobby Bowling IV, president of Tropicana Building Corp., an El Paso company which builds apartment complexes for low- to moderate-income families, said rising rents in the market are making it more difficult for some El Pasoans to find affordable places to rent. Tropicana and Investment Builders, another El Paso company, use federal tax credits to finance apartment projects where tenants must meet certain federal income limits to get in.

Investment Builders has the 94-unit Desert Villas under construction in the Lower Valley, and hopes to build four projects with 358 units late this year or early next year, reported Corinne Vonberg, senior vice president of operations. Two projects with about 100 units are regular market-rate apartments, and are not being financed with tax credits, she said.

Tropicana completed three tax-credit financed apartment projects last year with 332 units, Bowling said. It plans to start construction this summer on the 172-unit Canutillo Palms apartment complex near Canutillo High School, he said. "We'd probably be doing more projects if the market was better for tax credits," Bowling said. The tax credits are sold to investors to finance projects. But the market to sell tax credits has not been good, he said

From: http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_17080151


Downtown property destined for face-lift
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/13/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

http://www.sraep.org/images/el_paso_downtown1.jpg

Mayor John Cook said the city is close to buying the old El Paso Saddleblanket Co. building at North Oregon and East Missouri as part of its efforts to revitalize Downtown. Cook mentioned the pending transaction during the El Paso Central Business Association luncheon Wednesday at the DoubleTree Hotel. He was the keynote speaker at the event.

Last year, city officials said they were interested in buying the building from River Oaks Properties for $1.26 million to help reduce the blight in the central area. The city's offer was accepted, but the sale won't be final until the city completes an environmental review of the property, officials said. Next, the city will seek proposals to redevelop the property.

At the luncheon, the mayor also responded to concerns from Downtown merchants that included zealous enforcement of city codes, long waits at bridges and the threat to eliminate or increase red tape for manifestos (sales tax break for shoppers from Mexico).

After the luncheon, Mike Breitinger, executive director of the Central Business Association, said he's received many complaints from Downtown merchants and asked the mayor to respond to them.

"One of the things that's come up is the heavy-handed way in which traffic police and city codes enforcement have given out citations to customers and business owners," Breitinger said. "For example, someone was given an $80 ticket for jaywalking, and businesses who place their wares on sidewalks outside their business are getting cited for extending a little too far out on the sidewalk than they're supposed to."

Breitinger said such enforcement scares customers away from Downtown and hurts businesses. "We're asking the city to work with the merchants instead of citing them right way. É Retail stores at the malls don't have to put up with this," he said. "I can see giving someone who is a regular violator a traffic ticket, but not someone who walks in the Downtown area for the first time."

Cook said the city is working with the state and federal governments to reduce the waits at the bridges, which Downtown businesses complain reached up to three hours recently and also discourage people from shopping in Central El Paso.

Breitinger said he was glad to hear Cook say that the city wants to encourage signature events south of Paisano Drive -- such as a mariachi or food festival -- that will serve to attract shoppers to that part of Central El Paso.

During the luncheon, Cook listed many public and private sector improvements in Downtown that occurred in recent years, including the Plaza Theatre renovation, the DoubleTree Hotel and civic center improvements. The mayor also said he supports keeping manifestos because they benefit El Paso's economy. ...

Excellent....

Has this started up yet?
http://cityviewelpaso.com/images/pic-banner.png?1293221802
Medical Office Building I

CityView Medical Plaza (http://cityviewelpaso.com/)

How about this?

Paisano Green Community
http://www.residentialarchitect.com/Images/Paisano%20Green%20Community1_tcm48-450823.jpg
http://www.residentialarchitect.com/Images/Paisano%20Green%20Community%202_tcm48-450824.jpg
residential architect (http://www.residentialarchitect.com/articles/affordable-housing/boulder-design-team-wins-el-paso-affordable-housing-competition.aspx?playlist=playlist____48_450856&plitem=1)
Workshop8
(http://www.workshop8.us/multi-family)

Or this?

http://www.ofis-a.si/pic/galerija/ofis_el-paso-apartments_texas_26.jpg
http://www.ofis-a.si/pic/galerija/ofis_el-paso-apartments_texas_35.jpg

OFIS Arhitekti (http://www.ofis-a.si/)

About project (http://www.archdaily.com/53612/two-nest-village-ofis-arhitekti/)

CityView hasn't happened because of the economy. The Paisano Green Community broke ground a few weeks ago:

<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/35teRGVnKTk&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/35teRGVnKTk&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>

Nice. :cool:

Those container apartments are called 2 Nest Village Apartments, by the way, and seem like relatively new proposals.

Renova Plaza
http://etzoldco.com/images/MedicalComplex.jpg
ETZOLDCO (http://etzoldco.com/AboutEtzold.php)

Yeah, TONS of new apartments will be going into El Paso over the next decade. :cheers:

Food Chains: El Paso Registers In The Top 3 Growth Locations (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_17169514)



http://www.dunhillpartners.com/images/headers/properties-photo.jpg

" David Jaffa said he's struck gold with the Five Guys Burgers and Fries franchises he recently opened in El Paso and Albuquerque. Arturo Daly expects to do well with the Potbelly Sandwich Shop franchise he plans to open here by March.

They are among the newest entrants in what is becoming an influx of national restaurant chains opening or planning to open in El Paso in coming months. Many of those fit the fast-food mode.

Pitney Bowes Business Insight, a Troy, N.Y., company that helps companies select locations, has picked El Paso as one of the top three growth locations in 2011 for fast-food restaurants in medium markets in the United States with populations of up to 1 million. The top two medium markets are McAllen and Brownsville.

The best markets are those that showed improvement in job growth, had strong retail and home sales, and had a low presence of restaurant competitors, Pitney Bowes reported.

Randy Murphy, president and CEO of Mama Fu's Asian House, a small Austin-based chain of Asian restaurants with plans to put franchised restaurants in El Paso, said he agrees with the Pitney Bowes assessment. "The economy is strong, the population is growing, and capital funds are flowing into those markets, and into Texas in general," Murphy said.

Mama Fu's expects to have an El Paso franchise partner in the first quarter, Murphy said. It wants to open two to three El Paso restaurants, and one or two in Las Cruces.

The Five Guys Burgers restaurant on Sunland Park, which opened in November, the Las Palmas Marketplace restaurant, which opened two weeks ago, and an Albuquerque restaurant, which opened in March, are in the 750-restaurant chain's top 10 for sales, reported Molly Catalano, a spokeswoman at its corporate office in Lorton, Va., a Washington, D.C., suburb.

Jaffa, a Rhode Island resident who holds the Five Guys Burgers franchise rights for El Paso and New Mexico, said, "I never imagined those stores would do as well as they have been doing. Our stores are running (sales) about two and a half times more than the average (Five Guys) store."

Mary Castillo, who last Wednesday night was eating at the Five Guys in Las Palmas Marketplace on the East Side, said she and her family wanted to come sooner, but on other days, long lines of people were waiting to order. Castillo said she had eaten at a Five Guys in Florida, and especially liked its french fries. "This is what we need. We need more national chains in El Paso," Castillo said. "El Pasoans are looking for new things."

Jaffa, 56, previously owned and operated a window and door manufacturing company in Rhode Island with his brother, Alan, 58, who also is a partner in the Five Guys franchises. They fell in love with the Southwest, and decided this area would be a good place to put Five Guys. Jaffa said he and his wife plan to move to Albuquerque or El Paso in the future.

Jaffa knew nothing about Five Guys when he began looking for a new business to operate. He went to a Five Guys in Connecticut and "just fell in love with it" as soon as he went through the door, he said. He and his brother signed their franchise agreement in the summer of 2009. Since then, the chain, where President Barrack Obama was videographed buying a burger in 2009, has sold all its franchises for the United States and Canada, Catalano reported.

The chain features homemade-like burgers made with never-frozen beef and fries, all fried in peanut oil. It's part of the "better burger" restaurant segment. Smashburger, which opened a Fort Bliss outlet late last year, also is in that category.

Jaffa plans to open one or two more Five Guys outlets in El Paso this year, and eventually have at least eight El Paso locations. He plans to open 15 in New Mexico, including one or two in Las Cruces. No Las Cruces locations have yet been identified.

Daly, 41, who operates home- construction companies in El Paso and Chihuahua City, said he's been trying to get a Potbelly Sandwich Shop franchise for several years. But the Chicago chain, with 217 company-owned locations in 13 states, only began selling franchises last year. Daly and his wife, Dany Enriquez, who operated the Coco Loco seafood restaurant in Chihuahua City, were given the first Potbelly franchise in the nation last summer. A second one was awarded to a franchise holder in Toledo, Ohio.
Daly said he fell in love with Potbelly sandwiches and the restaurant's fun atmosphere years ago when he was a student at DePaul University in Chicago and ate at a Potbelly frequently.

He expects to open the El Paso restaurant by March at 1373 George Dieter, next to a Chico's Tacos, and across the street from a Corner Bakery Cafe franchise, one of its direct competitors."I believe in the product and concept," Daly said. "I think there's enough traffic and people" in that area to support another restaurant, he said. "I think we're competitive with pricing and our product. I think it's a good location." If that location succeeds, Daly hopes he can open four other Potbelly locations in El Paso. For now, Potbelly corporate officials have plans for only the one El Paso location.

Jim Gore, president of the companies that own and operate the Applebee's, Village Inn, and Corner Bakery Cafe franchises in El Paso and Las Cruces, said, "I think El Paso has always been a good market for restaurants, but maybe now (chains) are responding to Fort Bliss growth," and a loosening of loan financing compared to two years ago. "People have a more positive attitude about the (national) economy, and that's bringing expansion," Gore said.

Gore, 52, whose been in the El Paso restaurant market for about 30 years, and his partners plan to open their second Corner Bakery in mid-February in Sunland Towne Centre at 655 Sunland Park on the West Side. That's where Five Guys opened late last year, and where a third El Paso Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant will be located. A third Corner Bakery is being planned for an August or September opening in a yet undisclosed East Side location, Gore said.

The first Corner Bakery at 1350 George Dieter, across the street from Las Palmas Marketplace, opened in April 2009. "We've done well on the East Side, and we expect to do well on the West Side," Gore said. "This market can support new entries É It gives people choices. It's good for the economy," and competition keeps restaurant operators sharp, he said.

Foodservice Management Systems, an Austin company with 14 Gatti's Pizza franchises in three states, plans to return to El Paso in February with a Gattitown outlet at 1430 N. Lee Treviño. That's the former location of an America's Incredible Pizza Co., which became a Lido Fun Center.

The company operated a Gatti's in Bassett Center years ago, but closed it after sales fell due to construction of the Costco store, which made it difficult for people to get into the restaurant, said Nick Moore, Foodservice Management president. Another Gatti's on the far East Side, which also closed, was operated by another franchise-holder. "We've always thought El Paso was a good market," and Fort Bliss growth only makes it better, Moore said. The new location will include a pizza, pasta and salad buffet, a video arcade, and it will retain the indoor go-kart track and mini golf course that Incredible Pizza and Lido had.

Freedom Crossing at Fort Bliss, a $100 million shopping center that opened last year, also has brought several new restaurant chains: Smashburger, Sarku Japan, Manchu Wok, and Char ley's Grilled Subs. A Buffalo Wild Wings opened in October."Things are going very well at Fort Bliss for our two restaurants," said Amy O'Neil, chief operating officer for Dallas area-based PhaseNext Hospitality. It has the Smashburger and Buffalo Wild Wings franchises at Fort Bliss. The majority of customers are soldiers and their families, but the center is also open to anyone, so other El Pasoans also go to the restaurants, O'Neil reported.

These are the first two restaurants for PhaseNext, which plans to put franchised restaurants on military installations and at airports. The Smashburger franchise for the rest of El Paso is owned by a San Antonio company, which also owns the franchise for the other Buffalo Wild Wings in El Paso and Las Cruces. The franchise-holder has no immediate plans for Smashburger outlets in El Paso, spokeswoman Alexis Walsko said. The Denver-based chain has 93 locations, and plans to have more than 200 locations by 2012.

EP Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17232817)


UTEP moves to develop former Rudolph property
by Ramon Bracamontes \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/29/2011

UTEP is finalizing a development plan that will transform its parking lot on North Mesa Street into a retail center with stores and shops on the first floor and possibly housing on the second, third and fourth floors.

After years of contemplating what to do with the former Rudolph Chevrolet lot on North Mesa next to the Village Inn, the university has contracted with two local developers.

The caveat is that the land must be turned into a mixed-use development that improves student life and the neighborhood. "This will be the first mix-use development in the city with retail on the bottom level and housing on top," said Richard Adauto, UTEP's executive vice president. "It will fit nicely with the $32 million student swimming and fitness center being built across the street."

In 2002, the University of Texas at El Paso bought the parcel at 3003 N. Mesa from Rudolph Chevrolet for $4.1 million. Since then the land has been used as a parking lot. The plan all along has been to put some type of retail and housing center there, school officials said. In September, the university sought bids on the development of the land. Two local development groups, Wright Development Services and Thunderbird Partners, won the bid.

One of the developers, Doug Wright, said the university is giving them an opportunity to do something different. He said the 6-acre lot is the right size for what is planned. "It's just too preliminary right now to get into specifics about tenants and other users," he said. "It will be a high-end development."

Cynthia Viscaino Villa, UTEP vice president for business affairs, said more details about the project will be available within six to 12 months after the contract with the developers is finalized. After that, once construction starts, it will be an additional 18 to 24 months before the site is completed. "The center will have a mix of retail stores, restaurants, boutiques and small shops, as well as some sort of housing, maybe even dorms," she said. "We always have a need for housing."

City Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who represents the area, was glad to hear that plans for that lot are under way. If done right, he said, that mixed-use development will transform the look and feel of the area. "I hope that it is truly a walkable development," O'Rourke said. "I like the mix use of apartments and retail. I hope the storefronts will face the sidewalks; that will make it walkable." [...]

Lots of projects on this website.

http://www.wix.com/lievarch/home

The Onix
http://stat2.architizer.com/mediadata/projects/412010/r990x990/fb1e9252.jpg

With all these projects around El Paso, one could wonder if El Paso will be the next Phoenix?

With all these projects around El Paso, one could wonder if El Paso will be the next Phoenix?

They said that in the 1960s! :lol: Which is why Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station in Arizona got built, among other things. But El Paso ebbs and flows and after a nearly 30 year period of economic downdrafts and changes in its industrial mix, El Paso is ready to start moving upward again. We just need the situation in Mexico to settle down so trade and greater integration can accelerate.

Lots of projects on this website.

http://www.wix.com/lievarch/home



Yes indeed! Another architectural firm that's big in EP is ASA and they have had a nice slate of buildings in the El Paso/Las Cruces area.

http://asa-architects.com/

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17516100)

Trans Mountain freeway plan outlined
By Chris Roberts \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 03/02/2011

Converting the western end of Trans Mountain Road into a freeway with swooping ramps linking it directly to Interstate 10 is the only way to accommodate traffic flow and ensure public safety, according to a state report presented Tuesday to the El Paso City Council.

Construction of the road section between Franklin Mountains State Park and I-10 could begin as early as fall, said Chuck Berry, the Texas Department of Transportation's El Paso District engineer. He presented an environmental assessment of the project.

The future of the road, set in an open high desert landscape with dramatic views of the Franklin Mountains, has become a focal point for debate about future development in El Paso. The highway, which cleaves the mountain, has become an alternative loop around the city and is expected to relieve congestion on other major traffic arteries through El Paso.

Although some support the freeway design, other council members wanted the Texas Transportation Department to more seriously consider a boulevard-style road that does not require view-blocking overpasses. And some have supported the freeway concept reluctantly, noting that delays could mean losing $85 million in state money allocated for the project.

"I think what's been lost in all this is the immediate need for this road," said city Rep. Ann Morgan Lilly, who talked about recent fatalities there. "Maybe this isn't perfect, but, given where we started in 2005, we've come a long way."

The freeway, with four lanes, would be flanked by a two-lane access road on each. Biking and hiking paths would run next to the access roads all the way to the state park, Berry said. Four exits would be built on the 3.6-mile section of road, he said, which could be expanded to six lanes in the future.

The freeway design is necessary, Berry said, because traffic is expected to grow from the current 17,000 trips a day to more than 70,000 by 2035. That massive flow could not be supported on a boulevard, he said. And a boulevard would have far more "conflict points" where traffic and pedestrians cross, creating safety problems. "It does not meet the mobility and congestion needs," Berry said.

But city Rep. Beto O'Rourke noted that traffic studies for another area in El Paso have produced widely differing numbers and questioned the ones used for the department's study. O'Rourke and city Rep. Susie Byrd said there are examples of boulevards that support large traffic volumes. And bike trails built on the freeway design would be interrupted by driveways, creating safety hazards, O'Rourke said. "It does seem as though this alternative (boulevard design) was given relatively short shrift," O'Rourke said.

Berry said the department followed the proper procedures. "We don't believe you need a freeway to solve every conflict point," Berry said. "But when you're going over a mountain, it's difficult to change" geographical limitations.

The city's engineering and transportation departments both supported the state's proposal. But Mathew McElroy, deputy director of the city's Planning and Economic Development Division, said the state's assessment is flawed.

City staff has recommended using SmartCode for an 1,800-acre development on city-owned land surrounding that stretch of Trans Mountain. The new code would encourage a mix of business and residential use providing neighborhoods where people can walk on wide, tree-lined sidewalks to conduct most of their daily affairs.

It would reduce driving within the developed area by 17 percent to 40 percent, he said, which is not considered in the assessment. Freeways invite more traffic, congestion and pollution, he said, and support East Side-style sprawl.

Earlier Tuesday, a group of people who want city land on the road's higher elevations designated as open space turned in petitions that would require the council to reconsider development plans in the area. The petitions ask that nearly 800 acres straddling the road be designated as "natural open space" to protect mountain vistas, and that one of the proposed roads in the development be eliminated.

The council had rejected the open-space designation.

If enough petition signatures are valid, the city will have 30 days to put the issue on a City Council agenda. If the council does not approve the measures, new petitions will be circulated that would put the issue to a public vote, said Jim Tolbert, who has guided the signature-collecting process.

During public comment, Bill Addington, representing the El Paso Regional Sierra Club, said the group has hired a lawyer to determine whether the state Transportation Department's assessment meets federal environmental requirements.

El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson said the city had limited input when the plan was formed. "On the city side, I think we were caught asleep at the wheel," Byrd said. "If we had more time to influence the design on this, I think you'd have a different outcome."

Group sues over census: Mexican-American caucus says count missed Hispanics

By Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune
Posted: 04/06/2011 01:16:09 AM MDT

A group of Hispanic lawmakers has filed a preemptive lawsuit against the state over redistricting.

The Mexican American Legislative Caucus filed the suit Tuesday to prevent the use of 2010 Census numbers that the group says are flawed.

The suit alleges a substantial undercount of the state's Latino population, particularly those who live in colonias along the Texas-Mexico border.

The lawsuit applies to redistricting maps that are being crafted by the Texas Legislature for seats in Congress and the Texas House and Senate, and on the State Board of Education.

"The 2010 Census process and procedures resulted in substantial omissions in Latino population, particularly in the border region of Texas, including Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Webb and El Paso Counties, as well as urban areas in Dallas and Houston," the group said in its lawsuit.

The MALC sued in Hidalgo County, and the group is represented by Jose Garza, a San Antonio attorney hired earlier this year to legally protest the federal government's counts in South Texas.

Garza is representing Hidalgo County in a legal fight protesting last year's census; officials there believe the population was undercounted. By their estimates, more than 200,000 people weren't included in the final Census Bureau numbers.


http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_17774738

Makes you wonder how many people do live in your city, if El Paso Census was 800,000+ then the real population could put it toward 900,000 or the 1 Million mark...

New urbanism: Interest building in urban living, though it's in early stages in El Paso.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0402/20110402_080659_0403-e1-URBAN~3-c_400.jpg

by Leanne Hedrick \ Special to the Times
Posted: 04/03/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT

The hip, industrial coolness of living La Vida Urbana complete with exposed brick walls, concrete floors and chrome kitchen appliances has made its way to El Paso. And developers are banking on the idea that an option for Downtown living will attract the type of buyer who enjoys being able to walk to work, grocery stores, museums and restaurants.

Debbie Hester, a Realtor with ERA Buyers, Sellers and Associates in El Paso, said that often the first thing professionals moving from out of town want to know is about El Paso's urban living.

"It's not just young people, but middle-aged and older folks, too," Hester said "These are people who are used to living Downtown and like the convenience of reading their New York Times on their patio and not having to mow the lawn. It's a lifestyle that El Paso would like to be able to offer."

But it won't happen quickly, she said, because Downtown still needs to grow support businesses for urban living.

"The Downtown area will develop over the next five to 10 years as more services like dry-cleaning and grocery stores move within walking distance of urban housing. Then we are going to see a high demand for these properties. Urban living is the way of the future," she said. "Right now Downtown has a ways to go to get that really great 'look' that people are looking for. The Mills Plaza project will help tremendously when it opens up."


http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_17759844

Candidates differ on citywide growth: Fringes of El Paso see most sprawl, related problems.

by Marty Schladen \ El Paso Times
Posted: 04/17/2011 12:23:57 AM MDT

What -- if anything -- should be done about El Paso's lopsided growth is the subject of debate among several candidates for the subject City Council. city planners have advocated new policies to bring people back to the city's center, but some candidates have questioned whether the policies would be effective or even wise.

One, District 6 incumbent Eddie Holguin, said attempts to control sprawl have the effect of creating more.

When the U.S. Census Bureau released new statistics in February, they showed that El Paso had experienced healthy growth during the past 10 years -- 15 percent.

But that growth took place on the fringes of the city and out in the county. East El Paso neighborhoods grew by 200,000, while 70,000 new residents moved to far West El Paso.

Expansion on the fringes confounds efforts by a controlling bloc of the City Council to focus growth closer to Downtown.


http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17865497

El Paso International Airport Traffic Increases 36% In March (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_17977613)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0f/Bronze_equestrian_statue_of_Don_Juan_de_O%C3%B1ate_Salazar_by_John_Sherrill_Houser,_El_Paso_International_Aitport,_2006.JPG/220px-Bronze_equestrian_statue_of_Don_Juan_de_O%C3%B1ate_Salazar_by_John_Sherrill_Houser,_El_Paso_International_Aitport,_2006.JPG

March passenger traffic at El Paso International Airport increased 36.6 percent from February, but declined 2.7 percent compared to March 2010, new data show.

The airport was used by 252,779 passengers in March.

Passenger traffic declined 3.5 percent in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year. So far this year, 653,757 passengers have used the airport.

March freight traffic increased 14.5 percent from a year ago to 8,306 tons.

Juarez Lawmaker Wants New International Bridge At Sunland Park (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18011279)

by Marisela Ortega / El Paso Times
Posted: 05/06/2011

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/urgrande/images/ElPasoSt.jpg

A new non-commercial international bridge in this border region would ease border crossing wait times and improve environmental health with fewer auto gas emissions, Juárez Congressman Gerardo Hernández Ibarra said.

Hernández Ibarra said he already asked the House of Senate in México to take steps before the U.S. government toward opening of an international border crossing between Anapra and Sunland Park, the lawmaker said in a press release.

"Also, we are striving for upgrading and improving of Berrendo-Antelope Wells and Tornillo-Guadalupe international bridges," Hernández Ibarra said. Juárez's population grew to 1.3 million people in the last decade, Hernández Ibarra said, quoting figures released by Census 2010 in México, while 775,229 people live currently in El Paso, and Sunland Park accounts for 13,309 residents, Hernández Ibarra added.

In all, he said, there are 2,120,739 people living in this border region.

"We believe that building a new international bridge is crucial for our border region as thousands of people cross the border on a regular basis," Hernández Ibarra said.

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_18048480)


Forbes ranks El Paso No. 1 mid-size city for jobs
Times staff report
Posted: 05/12/2011

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college_ucf/files/2010/05/El-Paso-skyline-300x198.jpg

Forbes ranked El Paso the No. 1 mid-size city for jobs in their recently released "Best Cities for Jobs" list.
Rankings of 398 metropolitan areas were based on growth trends from November 1999 to January 2011.

Texas cities dominated the list with Austin coming in as the No. 1 large metropolitan area and Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood ranking as the No. 1 small city.

read about it at forbes.com: http://blogs.forbes.com/joelkotkin/2011/05/02/the-best-cities-for-jobs/

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_18044027)


Smart building: 290-unit apartment project is first step for Montecillo plan
By Vic Kolenc \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 05/12/2011 01:33:47 AM MDT

http://www.burypartners.net/images/projects/56/0.jpg


Work has begun on a 290-unit apartment project that's the beginning of El Paso's first Smart Code development -- the 292-acre Montecillo community in West El Paso.

When fully developed years from now, it's expected to have about 4,500 apartments, townhouses and single-family homes. It also will have stores, offices and open spaces.

The city's almost 2-year-old Smart Code is aimed at building developments that cater more to pedestrians than cars and provide for a high density of various types of residential housing mixed with commercial and open-space components.

EPT Land Communities will have a groundbreaking ceremony at 1 p.m. today for the apartment complex -- The Venue at Montecillo -- at 4901 Mesa, near Argonaut Drive. The four-building complex will face Mesa Street and include 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. "We're proud to be first" to use the Smart Code, said David Bogas, director of development for EPT. "It will have great appeal. We decided to take the risk."

EPT is a partnership of three El Pasoans, including Richard Aguilar, who also owns Bella Homes and many apartment projects. EPT could receive up to $22 million in property tax rebates from the city over 20 years to help pay for streets, parks and other public projects in Montecillo as part of an agreement City Council approved with EPT as an incentive to use the Smart Code. A similar agreement has been made with the developer of another proposed Smart Code community -- El Cruzero, a proposed 240-acre development at Joe Battle and Montana.

Mathew McElroy, deputy director of the city Planning and Economic Development Department, said that if the Montecillo development is successful in attracting residents, then other developers are more likely to do other Smart Code projects. The ultimate goal is to change the "development paradigm in the city" from urban sprawl to more sustainable, walkable and transit-served neighborhoods, McElroy said.

EPT has a huge, conceptual model of how Montecillo may look when fully developed. It is to have about 4,500 apartments, townhouses and single-family homes, according to EPT. Single-family housing will be the smallest portion of the development's housing stock. It will have "civic spaces," such as an amphitheater for concerts, and open spaces, including some arroyos, Bogas said. EPT must submit a more-detailed plan of Montecillo to the city by next spring.

Linda Bastraw, president of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors, said she has not seen EPT's plans, but, she said, El Paso needs other types of housing products besides single-family homes because people have different needs. "Periodically we get requests for townhomes, and we don't have a lot of that to offer," Bastraw said. This type of project is new to El Paso, she said, but "I think people will be receptive to it."

EPT officials are calling The Venue at Montecillo the start of the Montecillo development. But the apartment complex is outside the Smart Code designated area because it was planned before the development was switched to the Smart Code. But, McElroy said, it should blend OK into the entire Smart Code development.

Mesa divides two pieces of the Monticello land. An 80-acre part is above Mesa. The development is bordered by Interstate 10 on the West, San Clemente on the East, Fiesta Hills on the North and a proposed Walmart development on the south.

Montecillo will add traffic to Mesa, but less than a traditional, single-family home subdivision would bring, McElroy said. A Smart Code development will reduce vehicle trips 17 to 40 percent because residents are more likely to walk or use a bicycle because stores, doctors' offices and other places people visit are close to homes, McElroy said. It took EPT about two years to level the hilly, desert land to make it suitable for development. The Venue at Montecillo apartment complex will take about 16 months to complete, Bogas said.

Next up likely will be construction of a 183-unit apartment complex for active seniors, age 55 and up, Bogas said. That would be on Castellano. "There's no timeline for development" of the entire community, Bogas said. "It will take a considerable amount of time." McElroy said that if Monticello is "super popular," it could be developed in 10 to 15 years.

EPT is not divulging development costs.A city document estimated the value of the completed development at $777 million.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_lgAn0s2StXI/S2hV5EutXGI/AAAAAAAARsQ/zIxB0K5Ecdo/Monticillo.jpg

Speaking of which, here's a look at El Cruzero Town Center

http://www.wrightdalbin.com/p7abstractions/img/slideshow/el_cruzero/el_cruzero_3.jpg

http://www.wrightdalbin.com/p7abstractions/img/slideshow/el_cruzero/el_cruzero_2.jpg

El Cruzero is a 200+ acre mixed use development located at the Northeast corner of Montana Avenue (Hwy 62) and Joe Battle (Loop 375) in eastern El Paso. Two mixed use areas are planned: a Regional Center Development and a Traditional Neighborhood Development, as defined under the Smart Code, both insuring quality and enhanced overall value, appeal and vitality of the project.



http://www.wrightdalbin.com/el_cruzero_town_center_2.htm

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18074496)

City Council: Smart Code project sought for West El Paso
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 05/17/2011

http://www.geltmore.com/images/aldea_propertypage.jpg

The City Council today will consider an economic proposal for a Smart Code project of about 204 acres near Interstate 10 and Executive Center Boulevard in West El Paso.

City Rep. Ann Morgan Lilly said the proposed Aldea development would include a new Wal-Mart. "This will probably be our most important item on (today's) agenda, and I expect a long discussion for it," Lilly said. If the city approves the agreement with Geltmore, LLC, then Aldea will become the third Smart Code development for El Paso, a signature policy of the current City Council.

Under the plan, the city would grant city property tax rebates to help pay for infrastructure that developers usually pay for, such as streets, parks and utilities, in exchange for using the Smart Code, city Rep. Beto O'Rourke said. "The proposed agreement is similar to two other Smart Code developments the city has approved, Montecillo in the West Side and Cruzero at Joe Battle and Montana," O'Rourke said. "It's really exciting. It's going to be a good deal for the community."

Aldea lies to the south of Montecillo, which is located along the 5000 block of North Mesa Street, and includes a large arroyo. Lilly said the project appeals to the city because the developers for Aldea plan to seek a bypass road between Executive Center and Sunland Park Drive to access the development. "They also said they will save the arroyos that are there," Lilly said.

Geltmore, LLC, a real estate firm based in Albuquerque, will have a representative present at today's City Council meeting to discuss the project.
On Monday, Geltmore CEO Paul Silverman declined to comment on the proposal.

Environmental advocate Heather McMurray said that Asarco formerly owned the Aldea site and that officials should disclose whether it has any contamination from the smelter's previous refining and incineration operations.

She also noted a diagram on a page attached to the City Council agenda item labeled "Miner Village," which may indicate student housing for the University of Texas at El Paso.

However, UTEP officials said the Aldea project has nothing to do with the university, and city officials said the property was not used for smelter operations. "The property consists of 204 acres of land located along I-10 between Executive Drive and Mesa Street," according to geltmore.com. It is nearly three miles from Downtown El Paso and about a mile from UTEP.

"Ultimately the project will combine over one million square feet of high quality retail and entertainment, several hotels and more than one-quarter of a million square feet of office space with 1,245 new residential units of various sizes and types (apartments, condos, townhomes and live work studios accommodating seniors, students and everyone in between)," Geltmore's website said.

City Rep. Susie Byrd said the city was able to negotiate for Wal-Mart to comply with Smart Code and not just be located within the typical C-4 commercial zoning that's been in use throughout El Paso for major retailers.

Assuming the development evolves as envisioned, the high density, mixed-use project is expected to generate considerable tax revenues for the city above and beyond the tax rebates.

This doesn't have anything to do with development but, since El Paso and Las Cruces are so close to each other, are they one metro area or seperate? If seperate when do you think they'll form a metro?

This doesn't have anything to do with development but, since El Paso and Las Cruces are so close to each other, are they one metro area or seperate? If seperate when do you think they'll form a metro?

Good question! It's been talked about a lot over the years but oddly, as Las Cruces has grown and now has nearly everything El Paso has in terms of shopping, dining, etc. there are fewer people reliant on El Paso while commuter growth between the two cities is fairly flat. So the Census Bureau is holding off on a combination until the metros integrate more. Possibly 2020 or 2030 the Census Bureau will pronounce the CSA. It's expected that by 2050 the combined El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces region will have as many as 5 million people. By that time the 28 miles between El Paso and Las Cruces may be a solid line of development...

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18187441)


Shopping center at former Farah site leading El Paso retail resurgence
By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 06/02/2011

http://www.newspapertree.com/system/news_article/image1/2611/The_Fountains.jpg

An improving national economy along with more national retailers paying particular attention to Hispanic markets have helped increase retail center development in El Paso, experts said Wednesday.

The resurgence is being led by the $100 million shopping center planned for the former Farah factory site on the East Side, retail center developers said at an El Paso conference.

The Fountains at Farah has letters of intent or leases from retailers and restaurants for more than the 600,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space that will be available at the center, said West Miller, president and owner of Centergy Retail of Dallas. Centergy is a partner in the project with Western Refining chief executive officer Paul Foster, who owns the Farah site.

Miller wouldn't say how many businesses have signed leases, but he hopes to have national, regional, and local retailers and restaurants which will allow work to begin on the 55-acre site in October or November, he said.

Some stores could open by fall 2012, with the full center likely to be open by spring 2013, he said. He would not divulge names of prospective tenants.

Miller was among 90 people who attended the International Council of Shopping Centers Hispanic Markets conference at the DoubleTree Hotel -- it's one of several Hispanic market conferences being held by the group in several cities this year.

Adam Frank, president of River Oaks Properties, one of El Paso's largest developers and operators of strip shopping centers, said retailers are "under pressure to open new stores" as the national economy improves.
The Hispanic market also is becoming more powerful and will continue to get stronger, he said.

River Oaks has three small centers under construction and one East Side center set for redevelopment. Those will house local and some national and regional retailers, he said.

River Oaks this year also plans to remodel a Downtown building at the intersection of Mesa and Texas to house a national clothing retailer that, he said, is expected to sign a lease soon."This is the most construction we've had in three-plus years," Frank said.

Even with retailers again looking to expand, El Paso retail developers said a challenge they face is convincing some national retailers that Mexican shoppers crossing the border to shop in El Paso make this a much stronger retail market than El Paso's low-income demographics would indicate.

Some national retailers will not factor in shoppers from Mexico in their site-selection models, Miller said. Mexican shoppers account for about 16 percent of retail sales in El Paso, according to numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' El Paso branch. Several shopping centers and Downtown stores report much higher percentages of sales to Mexican shoppers.

Last year, shoppers from Mexico spent an estimated $1.4 billion at El Paso stores and restaurants, bank economist Roberto Coronado reported at the conference.

Jose de Jesus Legaspi, president of The Legaspi Co., a shopping center developer based in the Los Angeles area, said he spends a lot of time educating national retailers about adjusting their site-selection formulas to better reflect the affects of not only Mexican shoppers coming into markets, but also to account for the differences in Hispanic buying habits.

Hispanics are a young population, so they tend to buy more children's clothes, more shoes, and more electronic devices, he said. "There are no real numbers for the Mexican (national) shopper, so people tend to follow trends," Legaspi said.

That's why Cielo Vista Mall, which, he called El Paso's retail sales leader, is a place that national retailers look when researching this market. That's helped the proposed Fountains at Farah project, located next to Cielo Vista, attract retailers, he said. Cielo Vista officials in the past have said about 25 percent of its shoppers are from Mexico.

Bassett Place surveys found as many as 27 percent of its shoppers are from Mexico. The percentage declines at certain times of the year.

The Outlet Shoppes at El Paso estimated 75 to 80 percent of its sales are to Mexican shoppers, Beth Parkinson, the center's marketing director, reported during a panel discussion at the conference.

Growing sales at the 4-year-old, West Side center has it going forward with plans to add another 201,000 square feet of retail space, Parkinson said. It currently has 378,000 square feet of retail space with about 90 stores. Not all space in the proposed addition has been leased yet, but construction is projected to begin in the fall, she said.

Mimco, another large El Paso strip center developer, has a Northeast center under construction, and a West Side center under redevelopment, reported Bob Ayoub, Mimco president. "The market is perking up," he said.

Legaspi said the nation's growing Hispanic market, which, he said is almost 50 million people with $1 trillion in expendable income, is also attracting attention of retailers based in Mexico. More Mexican retailers will come into the U.S. market in the future, and since El Paso is next to Mexico, it likely will get some of them, he predicted. The Mexican retailers include supermarkets, movie theater chains, and electronics and clothing sellers, he said. El Paso has seen more Juárez restaurants and other businesses locate here to escape the drug-cartel violence there.

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=340&xrec=6491)


Aldea project woos tenants, builders
By Robert Gray

http://www.elpasoinc.com/efiles/plan529.jpg

Executives with the company that’s developing Aldea, an ambitious 204-acre “urban village” on El Paso’s Westside, were in Las Vegas last week, drumming up interest among lenders, retailers and homebuilders.

CEO Paul Silverman, who heads up Geltmore LLC, told El Paso Inc. that his real estate firm is in talks with three theater companies and a well-known grocery store chain not already in El Paso, and is actively seeking a multifamily developer for the project.

Silverman was speaking from the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Global Retail Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas. “When this thing starts coming out of the ground, it is going to look like a whole city is going up at once,” Silverman said of their planned development here.

Optimistically, that will happen over the next six years, but ultimately the speed of the build-out will be dictated by the market, according to Silverman. The worst-case scenario is a 20-year timeline.

The specs

The $500-million project, named Aldea El Paso, will be located at Executive Center and Interstate 10, three miles from Downtown El Paso and about a mile from the University of Texas at El Paso.

It comes as two other “urban villages” are being developed in El Paso that promise to follow the smart-growth guidelines favored by the city. The city has been trying to sell developers on them for three years. Adjacent to Aldea El Paso, EPT Land Development recently broke ground on its 300-acre smart growth community named Montecillo, and long-time El Paso businessman Cesar Viramontes is moving forward with a smart growth community in Far East El Paso named El Cruzero.

Ultimately, Aldea El Paso will combine more than one-million-square-feet of retail and entertainment space, hotels, and more than 250,000-square-feet of office space, with 1,245 new residential units of various sizes and types, according to projections. The community will have all the marks of a smart-growth community – vertical, mixed-use construction with residential and office space over retail space, parks, tree-lined streets, integrated public transportation, walkable neighborhoods, and the like, according to the company.

Five tips

Geltmore is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., but Silverman says he is no stranger to development in El Paso or smart growth principals. The first building Geltmore ever built was in El Paso: a warehouse at 1480 Common Dr., near Vista Del Sol. In 1981, Geltmore tackled its first mixed-use project, known as 150 Washington and 125 Lincoln, in downtown Santa Fe, right behind the Palace of the Governors.

“The focus on Bus Rapid Transit and more dense urban growth is really going to be what sets El Paso apart but, secondly, saves it economically,” says Silverman. The way El Paso is growing, he says, is largely in five tips on the outskirts of the Upper Valley, Westside, Northeast, Lower Valley and Far East.

That suburban sprawl is especially costly in El Paso, Silverman says, because of the geopolitical layout of the region. The borders between three states, as well as I-10, the mountains and Fort Bliss form additional barriers to expanding city infrastructure and services.

Tax incentives

The El Paso City Council recently voted 6-1 to give tax breaks to Geltmore for choosing to use the city’s optional smart code zoning standards. Rep. Eddie Holguin voted against it, while Rep. Emma Acosta was absent. The city expects Aldea El Paso to boost its coffers by almost $24.5 million over the next 23 years.

The agreement is similar to ones the city signed recently with the developers of the Montecillo and El Cruzero communities. The city will rebate Geltmore the cost it would normally pay for the public infrastructure, up to $22 million. If the development were to be built like most in El Paso, that don’t adhere to the smart code, the city estimates it would only collect $14.8 million in property taxes.

City officials say the city collects more revenue from a smart growth community largely because the development is denser, which means more investment in a smaller area and decreased infrastructure costs. “We are just getting a wonderful response to the plan and market development concept,” Silverman says.

“There appears to be very good market acceptance on what we have planned and what we are pursuing.”

Plan El Paso (http://planelpaso.org/2011/05/el-paso-approves-smartcode-rezoning/)


El Paso Approves SmartCode Rezoning

http://planelpaso.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Connecting-El-Paso-Report_120910_lores-1-300x231.jpg

http://planelpaso.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/asarco-west.jpg

The 450-acre former ASARCO site was rezoned to SmartCode transect zones at the City Council meeting on Tuesday. This was the first rezoning to SmartCode in the City since the adoption of the optional form-based code. Several more sites are expected to follow. The approval lays the regulatory groundwork for the east portion of the former ASARCO tract to become a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with a trail system along preserved arroyos. The west portion of the site is planned as a multi-use commercial and office regional center with areas for clean light-industrial uses, and destinations such as an amusement park or racetrack. Both sites are scheduled for environmental remediation prior to the addition of uses. SmartCode requires streets that are safe and comfortable for pedestrians, ample public spaces, walkable block sizes, urban format buildings, and a mix of housing types and uses. The rezoning is a major implementation action step in the Connecting El Paso Plan which was approved in January.

University Medical Center of El Paso

http://www.robinsmorton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/umc_elpaso1_fs.jpg

The University Medical Center of El Paso Master Plan includes two major projects including a $139 million expansion/renovation which will complete in 2011 and a new 130-bed Children’s Hospital scheduled for completion in 2012. The initial project includes expansion of the Emergency Department and Level One Trauma Center, renovation of Imaging and Cath Labs, construction of a new in-patient Surgery Center, new Labor and Delivery, and Postpartum Beds and an expansion of the Central Plant.

http://www.robinsmorton.com/projects/healthcare/womens-and-childrens-centers/university-medical-center-of-el-paso/

^^

I've been looking for updated photos of El Paso Children's Hospital as it nears completion and this is the best I've done:

http://cache.comcorpusa.com/436/327/crop/ktsm/media/news/childrenshospital_5-19-11.1305848483.jpg

It's scheduled for opening later this year. :)

Another component of the UMC masterplan has been stuck in the Legislature going nowhere. It's kinda a bad time to ask the State of Texas for money to build classrooms...

El Paso Inc. (http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=341&xrec=6509)


City’s new plan: discourage Eastside growth
PSB head says it’s about water
By David Crowder

http://iilab.utep.edu/images/El%20Paso%20east%20side.jpg

For the past decade, the debate over how El Paso should be developed has been heating up, often pitting City Hall against developers. In 2005 a majority of developer-backed City Council members were swept from office, including the mayor. Since then, the debate between those supporting continued development on the city’s fringes and the anti-sprawl forces inside City Hall has changed and cooled.

Major developers pressured by new city standards and rezoning denials by City Council have come around to smart growth concepts and pushed ahead with huge new development plans in the heart of the city, on the West Side and the Far East. But the old clash of ideas between developers and City Hall is likely to flare up again this summer with the approach of a preliminary rewrite of the city’s 20-year-old Comprehensive Development Plan, scheduled for release in September.

More than 1,000 El Pasoans have participated in the preparation, led by Dover, Kohl and Partners, one of the nation’s leading urban planning consultants. Depending on what eventually is adopted, the new plan could dramatically alter where and how subdivisions and commercial properties are built for years to come. “This comprehensive plan is state of the art with the best planners in the business, from Dover Kohl on down,” El Paso Planning Director Mathew McElroy said. “We’ve talked to over 1,000 people already in large charettes and open design discussions in Central, West and Far East El Paso,” he said. “People just walked in and got to participate. “We found they don’t pick far east or west development but compact neighborhoods, walkable streets, corner stores, small parks and they don’t fear density.”

[...]

Alot going on in El Paso...:cheers:

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18260900)


From bombing range to boom town? City leaders work to keep development off Castner
by Aaron Bracamontes \ El Paso Times
Posted: 06/13/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0612/20110612__0613-a1-castner~1_500.jpg

Unexploded ordnance, artillery and munitions are the only things keeping Castner Range untouched. Aside from Loop 375 and two museums, the area is a vast valley of mountainous terrain, occasionally covered by a blanket of golden poppies in the spring.

While El Paso's leadership is in favor of keeping it that way, there is no guarantee that Castner Range can be kept as it is forever. "I still believe it should be left in its current state," El Paso Mayor John Cook said. "Our biggest insurance on it are the unexploded ordnance."

http://www.stateparksguide.com/images/Poppiesandmountains.jpg

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18254852?source=most_viewed)


Billy Abraham's grand plan: Caples Square project is developer's olive branch to City Hall
By Marty Schladen / EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 06/12/2011 09:15:53 AM MDT

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0611/20110611__0612-A8-Abraham-bw_200.jpg

Billy Abraham says he wants to fix his buildings - and his relationship with city officials. The owner of a portfolio of decaying Downtown real estate on Friday said the market is finally right to implement his grand strategy. Abraham already has upscale tenants in several of his properties, and several more are on the way, he said.

In the coming month, he plans to ask for city government cooperation on an ambitious plan to revitalize several blocks in the heart of the city. "We, as El Pasoans, have a great opportunity," Abraham said. "If we strike that delicate balance of cooperation, we're in for a great future."

But it will be a tough sell after years of enforcement actions by the city - one of which is still in the courts - and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of taxes that were delinquent before Abraham paid them.

The El Paso Economic Development Department estimates that 65 percent of the Downtown building stock is blighted, and officials responsible for bringing properties up to code say Abraham has been anything but cooperative in the past. "We have a few regulars, but Mr. Abraham is right up there at the top," Chief Building Inspector Bill Stern said. "He usually waits until five minutes to 12 before he does something" that he's been ordered to.

Abraham attributes much of the trouble to personality conflicts and said that when somebody has as a big a portfolio as he does, problems are inevitable. "Anything on a grand scale, you're going to have some things that fall off the cart," Abraham said as he strode along Mills Street on Friday.

City records show that there have been enforcement actions for 10 buildings Abraham has a management or ownership interest in, almost all of them Downtown. One case, that of the building at 177-119 W. Overland Ave., has been in the system since 2006, when Abraham was ordered to secure the structure and remove some exterior parts of it.

The case remains in district court as Abraham fights $133,000 in penalties levied against him by the city's Building and Standards Commission. "He was one of the property owners we dealt with the most," said city Rep. Carl Robinson, who sat on the commission from 2005 to 2009. "And he was one of the most difficult to deal with." Abraham, however, said he wants to start afresh with city authorities. "I'm going to put out my hand and apologize for any misunderstandings," he said.

For the past two decades, Abraham has been accumulating about 16 buildings, some of which are among the city's most important historic structures. His critics say he buys buildings and sits on them while they crumble, but Abraham points to recent activity:

A tenant is operating an upscale restaurant in the Toltec building on Magoffin Avenue, and a coffee shop that also offers beer and wine is expected to open there on July 1.

A nightclub is open in the old train depot Abraham owns on North Campbell Street near Interstate 10. In addition, plans and specifications have been completed for the Franklin Chop House, a steakhouse planned for the rest of the 12,000-square-foot depot. A lease has been signed for another nightclub in the Henry C. Trost-designed Newberry Building at Stanton and Texas streets, Abraham said. And La Norteña, a bar-restaurant at 212 Overland, should be open in the next 30 days, Abraham said.

Also planned is the renovation of the property at 101 N. Mesa St., where Abraham says he wants to reopen the old Acme Saloon. "Outside of Paul Foster, I'm probably the only one that's doing anything in Downtown El Paso," Abraham said.

But it's the things Abraham didn't do that has aroused the ire of city officials. "I'll bet we've easily spent more than $100,000 just trying to get him to bring his buildings up to the minimum standards," City Manager Joyce Wilson said on Thursday.

Two buildings seen as particular keys to Downtown redevelopment are the Caples Building at 300 E. San Antonio and the Kress Building at 211 N. Mesa. Both are considered historically significant, both are owned by Abraham, and both have been the subject of enforcement actions by the city.



[...]

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/living/ci_18307444)


Financial frontera: Despite the violence in Juárez, $71 billion in trade crossed border last year
by Michael Hissam / Special to the Times
Posted: 06/19/2011

http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/newsletter/v3n1/images/BCISaerial.jpg

Economists will point to it; business proponents will tout it. But to what extent will El Pasoans choose to connect it when it comes to realizing the economic interdependency with the city 30 feet across the river?

Increased output from maquiladoras in Juárez -- led by the resurgent automotive sector, and influx of consumer electronics -- should continue to positively impact economic activity in El Paso.

Statistics show a rebound in trade in the region. More than $71 billion in legitimate trade crossed the border between El Paso and Juárez in 2010. This economic boost took place despite the security situation in Juárez, as well as day-to-day fears of another U.S. economic slowdown. That trade number represented an increase from the $47 billion in 2009.

[...]

el paso times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18308886)


Bridging the future: Officials hopeful Tornillo international bridge will boost growth in Lower Valley
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 06/19/2011

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0618/20110618__0619-a1-tornillo~1--c_300.jpg

Work has begun on the new Tornillo-Guadalupe International Bridge that officials say will forever change the fortunes of an impoverished region of the Lower Valley.

The border-crossing facility on the U.S. side will be located on 117 acres about 30 miles east of Downtown El Paso, making it the largest border-land site in the nation.

The new $133 million border crossing will consist of a six-lane commercial and non-commercial toll bridge and will replace the existing Fabens-Caseta crossing, which is much smaller. Officials expect the bridge to be finished and open by late 2012 or early 2013.

Once completed, it is expected to provide major relief to the current ports of entry in El Paso that handle about 10 million vehicles crossing each year.

The U.S. General Services Administration has scheduled a groundbreaking on July 20. "The County of El Paso has acquired all the necessary right of way, and work has started on phase one of the project," said Robert Rivera, director of the El Paso County Road and Bridge Department.

The multi-agency project includes plans for a new road that will connect traffic from the border crossing to Interstate 10. In addition to the county, GSA and the Texas Department of Transportation are working on different portions of the project. County officials hoped to begin on the bridge itself this month, but Mexican officials are not ready to start in Guadalupe.

The county will let bids later this year for phase two, which is the U.S. side of the bridge, and TxDOT will embark on phase three, which is the rest of the roadway from Alameda to I-10. Phase one included the land acquisition.

"The project is a very positive step for the county as a whole," said County Judge Veronica Escobar. "It affirms our relationship with Mexico and our economic dependence on international commerce and trade.

[...]

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_18324946)


El Paso economy's growth outpaces most cities
By Vic Kolenc \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 06/22/2011 09:31:00 AM MDT

http://www.city-data.com/forum/members/smguy101-270482-albums-my-pics-pic27516-el-paso-skyline.jpg

El Paso's economy continued to grow slowly in the first quarter, but it grew better than the economies of most other large metro areas in the country, the Brooking Institution's latest MetroMonitor report shows.

El Paso's economic output increased 0.9 percent in the first quarter. That growth rate, the same rate as in the fourth quarter, ranked 10th among the nation's 100 largest metro areas. Houston ranked first with a growth rate of 3.3 percent in the January-April quarter.

"One percent (economic) growth is not something to be too excited about. But when compared to the rest of the nation, El Paso is doing pretty well," said Richard "Chad" Shearer, a research assistant at Brookings and co-author of the MetroMonitor report.

The 100 metro areas had an average economic growth rate of 0.5 percent in the first quarter. The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, has been tracking metro areas' recovery from the recession since June 2009.

El Paso's job creation was sluggish in the first quarter, with a job growth rate of 0.4 percent. That ranked 36th among the 100 metro areas. Its 10 percent unemployment rate in the first quarter ranked 70th.

...

Brookings again ranks El Paso as one of the nation's "strongest 20 metros" during the nation's recovery from the recession. El Paso had fallen to the MetroMonitor's "second-strongest 20 metros" category in the fourth quarter.

[...]

El Paso Inc. (http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=343&xrec=6549)


Foxconn plans to expand
New maquila to go in next to electronics giant
By Robert Gray

http://www.elpasoinc.com/efiles/foxconn613.jpg

One of the largest maquilas in the border region is working on plans to grow, and even as it expands, a brand new maquila is moving in next door, company executives have confirmed.

Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn will consolidate some, if not all, of its North American operations at the company’s giant factory just down the road in San Jeronimo, Mexico, according to Francisco Uranga. He is Foxconn’s corporate vice president and chief business operations officer for Latin America.

Foxconn has operations in Chihuahua City, Guadalajara, Reynosa and Tijuana in Mexico. “That’s the main idea for this campus eventually. How can we relocate all of those operations into one single operation that will allow us to be more efficient inhouse?” Uranga says.

Right now, the Foxconn factory complex is alone in a sea of sand and cactus, just across the border from Santa Teresa, N.M. But Uranga told El Paso Inc. that construction on another maquila, adjacent to his operation but not owned by Foxconn, is expected to begin soon.

...

Needed to complete Uranga’s vision are two elements: the $400-million rail hub that Union Pacific expects to complete in Santa Teresa in 2015, and expansion of the little airfield at Santa Teresa so it can handle Boeing 747 cargo planes. “It would make this region the most competitive, attractive region along the entire border,” he says.

Foxconn put a campus in San Jeronimo because of its proximity to important markets in the United States, and easy access to the labor pool in Juárez, Uranga says. Since Foxconn came to San Jeronimo in 2008, the campus has grown to 1.6 million-square-feet and, without building any more structures, has space for 400,000-square-feet of additional manufacturing space, according to Uranga. But the company has only developed about a quarter of the 240 hectors it owns in San Jeronimo.

The facility’s 5,500 employees can produce as many as 50,000 computers in a day.

[...]

The Magoffin Park Villas, the first new housing built in downtown El Paso in nearly 40 years nears completion.

http://borderzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/newhousing.jpg

Construction on the first large-scale, high-end housing complex in Downtown El Paso is now under way.

The complex should be ready within a year and, once built, the Magoffin Park Villas will add 91 new apartments to an emerging Downtown housing scene. The apartments are located just blocks from the new federal courthouse.

The $8 million project is a venture between Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe and TVO North America, a private real estate investment company.

It is being called a "catalyst project" for the future development of Downtown.


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a14/alandin111/Learn%20About%20the%20Plan/LAP-MagoffinResidentialDistrict.jpg
The Magoffin residential district is an area just south and east of the downtown core that is slated for higher density, mixed income housing development and infill.

abqjournal (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abqjournal.com%2Fmain%2F2011%2F06%2F27%2Fbiz%2Foutlook%2Fa-port-in-the.html&ei=WTIJTpqWGY2-sQP6oeGRDw&usg=AFQjCNEA9MzKypyAQabnH8eWIJoGnZqCMw&sig2=yTXfF70s3c8io5OUY2he3g)


A Port In The Desert

By Bill Hume / For the Journal on Mon, Jun 27, 2011

http://www.trainweb.org/screamingeagle/other/j_glenewinkel/dark_t/UP-train-lineup-2.jpg

SUNLAND PARK – Santa Teresa “will become a key inland port in the United States” when Union Pacific Railroad’s massive $500 million refueling and intermodal yard is completed there in five years, according to Zoe Richmond, UP’s director of public affairs for Arizona and New Mexico. “Think of it as a chicken coop for trains,” Richmond said.

It will be a major refueling, crew change, switch yard and intermodal ramp for UP’s busy Sunset Corridor, from Los Angeles-Long Beach through to Chicago and across the nation.

Union Pacific in New Mexico
• 618 miles of track
• 327 employees
• Annual payroll: $22.4 million
• In-state spending: $4.1 million
• Capital spending: $14.8 million
- Source: Union Pacific

An intermodal ramp is characterized by the heavy gantry crane machinery necessary to move massive freight shipping containers from railroad cars to highway trailers and vice versa.

Speaking to more than 700 people attending the 17th annual NAFTA Institute, Supplier Meet the Buyer trade conference earlier this month, Richmond and other UP officials outlined details of the five-year project.

Construction alone will have a major impact on the economy of southern New Mexico. It will generate more than 3,000 jobs during the construction phase, and result in the payment of more than $23.5 million in state and local taxes, UP officials said. When in full operation, projected for 2015, it will have a permanent workforce of about 600. The project also is expected to trigger significant retail, service and entertainment enterprises in the Santa Teresa area in the near term, to serve this influx of workers. UP currently is moving about 40 trains a day on the Sunset Corridor, not yet back to the levels prior to the economic crash, “but getting close,” Richmond said. The goal is to support a capacity of 70 to 90 trains a day.

The railroad intends to use the Santa Teresa facility as a virtual extension of its Long Beach port facilities, with ocean freighters being unloaded in bulk onto trains bound for Santa Teresa. The cargoes will be broken down in Santa Teresa for shipping to diverse destinations around the country. The objective is to try to reduce the bottleneck and congestion at the California ports, Richmond said. The southern New Mexico operation will facilitate the movement of goods into the nation’s heartland – and, of course, to all points in New Mexico. In addition, it will give New Mexico manufacturers and agricultural producers an efficient and direct connection for shipment all over the country and the world.

The El Paso/Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/Las Cruces area already is the seventh biggest manufacturing center in the world – and the UP facility will materially improve its global connections to raw materials, components and consumers. “Make no mistake, we intend that Doña Ana County and the border area will lead jobs development in New Mexico,” said Economic Development Secretary-designate Jon Barela, at the NAFTA conference, predicting at least 800 new jobs in Doña Ana County within the next 12 months. “Infrastructure development along the border is a priority of mine, it’s a priority of the governor’s.”

Statistics on activity at the Santa Teresa border crossing demonstrate the growth potential. In 1997, fewer than 100,000 private vehicles crossed at Santa Teresa; in 2010, more than 500,000. Trucks totaled about 3,000 in 1993; in 2010, more than 80,000. “It is the fastest, most modern port crossing in the district,” said Jerry Pacheco, primary organizer of the NAFTA conference and a Journal trade columnist. “It still has to be fully developed and its potential fully realized.”

[...]

EP Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_18379018)



United Bank of El Paso Downtown location coming soon
By Ramon Bracamontes \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 06/30/2011

http://dwcarchitect.pro/ubanksq.jpg
This photo illustration shows what United Bank of El Paso del Norte at 401 E. Main will look like once completed. (Courtesy of Alvidrez Architecture Inc.)


United Bank of El Paso del Norte has begun construction on its new Downtown headquarters -- a vacant parking lot that will be transformed into a four-story Spanish Colonial office complex.

The vacant structure at 401 E. Main will become a multiuse building that officials say will contribute to the revitalization of Downtown El Paso.

"The building momentum of Downtown redevelopment is evident in the growing number of completed and emerging projects in the area, and we wanted to show our belief in El Paso's future," said Les Parker, president of United Bank, in a statement. "We hope that our renovation will help in the stimulation of more downtown progress."

The existing building, bounded by North Campbell, North Kansas and East Main streets, was originally built in 1976 and used as a commercial walk-in and motor bank for the First City National Bank.

The transformation of the building is being led by local architecture company Alvidrez Architecture Inc. Once completed, the building will house the headquarters of United Bank of El Paso del Norte and will include a motor bank on its ground floor.

The second and third floors will remain parking, and the fourth floor will be used for tenant office space. The construction will be performed by El Paso's FT James Construction, and the building is expected to open in midsummer 2012.

United Bank of El Paso del Norte is the only bank in El Paso that is owned by a wide cross-section of the community that includes nearly 500 local shareholders.

---



As modest as this project seems, it's the first new bank project in Downtown El Paso in 25 years.

Wow. El Paso seems to have a bit of action going on right now.
Is this Abraham guy serious? or is he just blowing smoke?
Any other renderings of these Magoffin Park Villas?

Wow. El Paso seems to have a bit of action going on right now.
Is this Abraham guy serious? or is he just blowing smoke?
Any other renderings of these Magoffin Park Villas?

Abraham means well but he's poorly suited to redevelop downtown. If a buyer comes along, this guy's gonna sell.

El Paso has some strong momentum builders, least of which is the massive expansion at Ft Bliss. The city also has absorbed many entrepreneurs from CD Juarez fleeing the violence there.

Some new pics of Magoffin Park Villas:

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0723/20110723__0724-e1-magoffin_VIEWER.jpg

http://www.elpasotimes.com/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?articleId=18537204&siteId=525&startImage=1

El Paso Inc. (http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=346&xrec=6610)


PDNG pushes Downtown arena
County coliseum might have to go
By David Crowder

http://www.ci.el-paso.tx.us/econdev/_images/historical_downtown1.jpg

The Paso Del Norte Group, which brought El Paso the controversial Downtown Plan in 2006, is shopping for support from business leaders and public officials for a big, multi-purpose arena Downtown.

Mayor John Cook said he was recently approached by Myrna Deckert, PDNG’s former president and CEO, who said, “We need to talk soon about an arena.” She said they have the study, but wouldn’t say where they’re talking about putting it,” the mayor said. “I asked if it was baseball, and she said, ‘It’s bigger than that.’ ”

The PDNG, made up of business leaders, elected officials and other influential people, included a proposed arena in the 2006 Downtown Plan. The city, in its updated 2015 plan for Downtown, proposes an arena complex in the Union Plaza District, south of City Hall. Other possible locations include the area west of Union Depot now being used by Sun Metro, and the BNSF railyard south of Paisano Drive.

Ruben Guerra, a member of PDNG’s executive committee, wasn’t anxious to talk about it. “The study is not formalized, it’s still in draft form,” he said. “We don’t know what it will look like when the thing is put together. “There really isn’t anything to put on the front page. … To say anything other than the effort is to get more data would be premature.”

In 2000, the debate over an arena was all the news. The late former Mayor Carlos Ramirez proposed a $144-million, 20,000-seat arena Downtown, but City Council pulled it off the ballot at the last minute to save that year’s $141-million quality-of-life bond election from voter wrath. It worked.

Two years later, the county asked voters to OK a $45-million bond issue for an arena at Ascarate Park. They didn’t. A few months later, in 2003, the city and county agreed to work together on a new Downtown arena plan.

Consultants had advised it would absolutely need an anchor tenant to work, such as a Dallas Cowboys arena football team, and a location that wouldn’t require evicting residents or significant opposition from area property owners. The idea quietly fizzled. The county fixed up the coliseum again, instead.

County Judge Veronica Escobar said she hasn’t seen any part of an arena study but has heard a little about it. Speaking in general, Escobar said she thinks an arena may be essential for Downtown revitalization, which is vitally important to the city.

She didn’t say she would support closing the coliseum to make it happen, but did say she’d consider it if necessary, because El Paso needs a strong Downtown and what comes with it to rebuild the tax base. “When all the Downtown redevelopment debates were happening in 2006, there was a lot of talk about why it was important and there were a lot of feel good reasons,” she said. “But for me, what’s at the heart of why it’s important to revitalize Downtown is the unhealthy distribution of our tax base right now.”

In an economically healthy city, she said, commercial and industrial property values account for 60 percent to 70 percent of the property tax base, with residential values amounting to 30 percent or so. But in El Paso, the taxable value of single-family homes this year, $18 billion, equals 57 percent of the city’s $31.6-billion tax base. Commercial and industrial values, plus utilities and railroads, total $8 billion, or 25 percent of the tax base.

But before she would seriously considering anything, Escobar said, “I’d want to know what the study says.” City manager Joyce Wilson said an arena located west of City Hall was a “signature project” in PDNG’s Downtown redevelopment plan. “The private sector group is still looking at options and updating the plan using private resources,” she said. “The city’s role at this point has been to look at city-owned land that might be available to support this type of effort.”

Dover Kohl, the consulting company that is drawing up a new El Paso Comprehensive Plan, hasn’t looked at the feasibility of an arena, she said, but they are looking at where it could be located. “Most would concur that a major multi-purpose events facility like an arena would be impactful,” Wilson said in an e-mail to El Paso Inc. “You look at Oklahoma City, Omaha, Phoenix, Glendale, Ariz., and you can see the impact of these types of investments. “It is unlikely that it can be done with private resources alone, but with a consortium of resources (city/county/private), it could be viable without unduly burdening the taxpayer.”

So where does the county coliseum figure in?

“The reality is that if we are going to go this route, we need to look at all existing assets to see whether or not the arena facility would be a replacement for others or an addition,” she said. “There is a limit to how many competing facilities a community can have, so if it’s possible to retire some and incorporate those existing resources into a larger more diverse and modern asset, then everyone benefits.”

But fans of the kinds of shows that land at the 6,500- to 7,000-seat coliseum wouldn’t, said Brian Kennedy, executive director of the El Paso County Sports Commission, which manages the 70-year-old facility. He said he’s heard about the arena plan and that it might mean having to shut down the coliseum, which the commission has leased for seven more years.

Closing the coliseum, he said, would mean losing a lot of concerts and other events whose promoters cannot afford UTEP’s Don Haskins Center, much less an expensive, new arena. “I think this is really the people’s arena,” Kennedy said of the coliseum. “We do some shows here that wouldn’t stop in El Paso if we weren’t here.“You can have a small event in a big arena, but it guarantees that you will lose money and they won’t happen too many times before events will start going elsewhere.”

EP Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18504395)


Investing in Juárez: Border city on track for $498M worth of public-works projects
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 07/19/2011 08:56:10 AM MDT

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1608/img01t.jpg
http://media.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/files/foro/2008/09/48d80267e931b_o.jpg
http://furiagris.com.mx/sitio/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/estadiochihuahuawy8.jpg

Juárez is in line to receive nearly a half-billion dollars worth of public-works projects that officials say will help generate jobs and bring many overdue improvements to the border city and its vicinity.

Javier Garfio Pacheco, Chihuahua state public works minister, recently announced the projects that will receive $498.4 million in funding from city, state and federal sources. They include $41.7 million to revitalize the Juárez downtown historic district, $29.2 million for a new convention center (the site has not been disclosed), $10.8 million for a baseball park, $166.7 million for street paving and other street improvements, $83.3 million for mobility projects to improve mass transit, $41.7 million for the proposed Guadalupe border crossing highway bypass and $125 million for the Guadalupe-San Jeronimo rail bypass.

The international bridge and road project in Guadalupe (south of the border) will connect to the bridge and connector road in El Paso County. Work on the El Paso side of the $155 million Tornillo-Guadalupe international bridge is already under way. U.S. officials plan a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the federal bridge facility in Tornillo. Construction on the Mexican side of the bridge at Guadalupe, including the new highway, has not begun.

...

Juárez had 789,520 people in 1990 in its urban center and 1.3 million in 2010, according to Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), the federal agency that collects population and other data for the nation.

"The construction projects will provide a short-run alternative to the unemployment that has surfaced in recent years," he said.

---

I know El Paso and Las Cruces aren't that far apart but do you see them being one metro one day?

I know El Paso and Las Cruces aren't that far apart but do you see them being one metro one day?

It's anticipated but unlikely before 2040 or 2050. But El Paso leaders are pushing for more of that city's growth to be directed westward and towards Las Cruces so an urban wall of growth to the state line is inevitable before then. Las Cruces has been growing eastward toward the Organ Mountains and while valley land is being protected, mesa land is slated for development around both cities and between them. By 2050 the El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces region is expected to have 5 million residents.

Despite ire of some, Canutillo development's rezoning OK'd (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18556190)
The El Paso City Council on Tuesday approved the rezoning for the new Rio Valley LLC development in the Upper Valley -- which has space for 375 homes -- despite objections of neighbors and the Canutillo Independent School District.

The council voted 7-1 for the change after Rio Valley LLC appealed the City Plan Commission's denial in May of the zoning change from residential to general mixed-use.

Opponents said it was not a compatible land use for that part of the city, which has homes on large tracts that are used for farming and ranching.

City Rep. Emma Acosta, who said she was siding with the neighbors, cast the sole vote against the rezoning.

"I thought a lot about it. I also have to agree with the Plan Commission that it's not compatible," said Acosta. She added that it would add more traffic to an area that may not be ready to handle it.

Laure Searls, Canutillo ISD board vice president, said the district is against the rezoning because it will increase the housing density, and that means the district will have to absorb hundreds more students than it can accommodate.

She said the developer did not notify the school district about the higher density for its proposed development.
B]

^^

Interesting news. Canutillo has been a kind of disorganized unincorporated ramble of houses and lots for decades. Transforming it into a better planned community has been a goal for both the City of El Paso and the county for years.

EP Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18590617)


New life for Northgate Mall: City hopes to restore luster to Northeast's faded gem
by Aaron Bracamontes \ El Paso Times
Posted: 08/01/2011

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0213/20110213__0214-zne-northgate~1-c_400.jpg
The condemned building that once held NorthPark Mall is located

Not too long ago, Northgate Mall was the pride of Northeast El Paso, filled with hordes of shoppers and endless possibilities. Now there are just empty sidewalks and boarded-up windows. Shadows and ghosts are the only things that linger around the abandoned Northgate Mall, also known as NorthPark Mall. The only signs of life at the location on Dyer Street between Diana Drive and Wren Avenue are a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Walgreens.

After several attempts to recapture its magic, the city of El Paso has finally decided to put the 51-year-old retail center out of its misery. Bulldozers and wrecking balls will pulverize abandoned buildings in September, leaving a blank canvas for brand-new possibilities. "We are taking a positive action to turn a negative into a gem," said Northeast city Rep. Carl Robinson. "It would be a total revitalization."

However, after years of broken promises, Northeast residents are not ready to get their hopes up. After all, the story of how the Northgate Shopping Center went from a shopper's paradise in the early '60s to a retail ghost town may be one of the most tragic tales in Northeast El Paso.

Beginning with initial stages of construction in 1959, residents felt it was going to become something special. As the 1960s closed, Northgate Shopping Center was undeniably the Northeast area's heartbeat.
Decades of neglect, lack of progress and just plain bad luck put the shopping center on life support.



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El Paso Inc (http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=350&xrec=6694)


Can architecture school transform Downtown?

By Robert Gray


Robert González’s theory about how to give Downtown El Paso a makeover is simple and while it has never been done here, it’s nothing new. It’s worked to transform other U.S. cities like New Orleans, Miami and Savannah over the past few decades.

It goes like this: By integrating an architecture school into downtown, creating a studio where students can work on projects – plan parks, uses for neglected historic buildings and the like – you unleash the creativity of students and drive downtown development.

“Every architecture school in the world wants to be downtown. We are urban beings, and we see it as our laboratory,” says González, who was named director of Texas Tech University’s budding college of architecture in El Paso in June. In the studio, students will lead historic tours, host charettes and make up a customer base for the coffee shops, cafés and bookstores that have long been absent from El Paso’s depressed Downtown, says González.



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Renderings are out for the new $1bln William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0813/20110813__0814-A1-BEAUMONT_300.jpg
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18679091

Apple Store Opening Soon At Cielo Vista Mall (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18881706)


http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0912/20110912__0913-a1-mac~1_300.jpg
.

El Paso Inc (http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=355&xrec=6802)


More growth for Montecillo
Taxing district okayed for smart-growth project
By Robert Gray

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0512/20110512_122607_montecillo_500.jpg

The first buildings of a massive $777-million Westside urban village are little more than wood skeletons towering over North Mesa Street right now, but the developer is already preparing to launch its next projects.

Richard Aguilar’s EPT Land Communities expects to start construction on a senior community, as well as town homes, in six months. They will be located behind the four apartment buildings, called The Venue at Montecillo, now under construction along Mesa.

It’s all part of a 293-acre development named Montecillo that broke ground in May, located along Mesa Street between Castellano Drive and Festival Drive, extending to Interstate 10.

The urban village is the first to follow the city’s smart code adopted a few years ago.

“It’s no longer just talk and rhetoric, we actually have concrete pieces in place and the whole thing is moving forward,” says David Bogas, EPT Land Communities’ development director.

When fully built, the urban village is expected to have more than 2,500 apartments and almost 500 homes and town homes, mixed with schools, retail, offices and 80 acres of open space, mostly arroyo.

In another development, a bill passed by the Texas Legislature that takes effect in a few weeks creates a Municipal Management District that encompasses the Montecillo urban village.

It will have the power to tax property owners living in Montecillo and issue bonds to supplement city and county services, according to the legislation, which was co-authored by state Rep. Marisa Marquez, D-El Paso.

[...]

El Paso looks to be on the verge of strengthening its connectivity with Las Cruces and the two becoming one metro in the near future.

El Paso looks to be on the verge of strengthening its connectivity with Las Cruces and the two becoming one metro in the near future.

It may *officially* be a few more decades away but it's indeed coming...

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18891770?source=most_viewed)


El Paso tops Newsweek's list of 'Can-Do Capitals'
by Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Posted: 09/15/2011

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0914/20110914__0915-a1-cando-c_400.jpg
This is the view of the El Paso skyline and San Jacinto Plaza from the Mills Building garage.
El Paso was named the No. 1 city in the nation in improving its quality of life by Newsweek/Daily Beast.
(Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

El Paso is No. 1 among 200 of the nation's largest cities for making the most progress in recent years in improving the quality of life, according to a new ranking done by Newsweek/Daily Beast.

It calls the top cities "America's Can-Do Capitals," and said these are cities that "still have it going on" even as economists fear a "double dip" recession.

El Paso scored 71.43 points out of a possible 100 in the ranking, which allotted 25 points in each of its four categories: sustainability, livability, transportation and infrastructure, and business development.

The ranking was published in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine as part of a story about ways to fix America, and is posted on the Daily Beast, an online compilation of news and commentary.

"By several significant data points, it (El Paso) has become a city that offers more opportunity to residents than it did a half-decade ago," said Lauren Streib, an assistant editor for Newsweek/Daily Beast. She and reporter Clark Merrefield compiled the rankings using a variety of data from government agencies and Moody's, an economic research company.

The data show that in the past several years, El Paso has become more environmentally friendly, "and its business climate and the quality of life of its residents has improved," Streib said.

[...]



Can-Do Capitals

Cities that ranked the highest in four categories -- sustainability, livability, transportation/infrastructure, and business development --and each city's composite score in a Newsweek/Daily Beast (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2011/09/11/american-can-do-cities-oakland-boston-philadelphia-photos.html) ranking:

1. El Paso, 71.43

2. Oakland, 65.60

3. Riverside, Calif., 64.19

4. San Antonio, 61.64

5. Omaha, 61.39

6. Washington, D.C., 61.21

7. Raleigh, N.C., 61.04

8. Atlanta, 60.99

9. Buffalo, N.Y., 60.43

10. Austin, 59.43

10 (tie) Boston, 59.43

12. Philadelphia, 59.26

13. Dallas, 58.47

14. Fort Worth, 58.14

15. Portland, 58.09

16. Colorado Springs, Colo., 57.95

17. San Diego, 57.88

18. Detroit, 57.87

19. Indianapolis, 57.55

20. Milwaukee, 57.48
Source: Newsweek/Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2011/09/11/american-can-do-cities-oakland-boston-philadelphia-photos.html

El Psaso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_18904970)


Growth slows, but outpaces most metro areas

EL PASO ECONOMY
By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 09/16/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6205/6057486594_e633d6efc2.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/congressmanreyes/6057486594/)
William Beaumont Army Medical Campus Groundbreaking Ceremony (http://www.flickr.com/photos/congressmanreyes/6057486594/) by Congressman Silvestre Reyes (http://www.flickr.com/people/congressmanreyes/), on Flickr
Fort Bliss broke ground Friday for the new $1 billion William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

El Paso's economy grew slowly in the second quarter, but it grew at a better pace than most other large metro areas in the country, the latest Brookings Institution MetroMonitor shows.

El Paso's economic output increased 0.6 percent in the second quarter -- the 12th best among the nation's 100 largest metro areas -- the Brookings Institution report shows. Economic growth in the second quarter averaged 0.3 percent for all 100 large metro areas. Houston's 1.7 percent increase in economic output in the second quarter was the best in the nation.

Economic growth is measured by gross metropolitan product -- the production of all goods and services in a metro economy. It's similar to the nation's GDP, or gross domestic product. The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., research and public-policy organization, has been tracking economic performance of the nation's largest metro areas each quarter since June 2009.

El Paso's economy grew in the second quarter despite just a 0.3 percent growth in jobs. That ranked only 45th among the 100 metro areas. El Paso's unemployment rate, which averaged 10.9 percent in the second quarter, was one of the worst in the nation -- ranking 84th among the 100 metro areas.

[...]



El Paso snapshot

El Paso's economic performance in the second quarter:

Economic output: up 0.6 percent.

Employment: Up 0.3 percent.

Unemployment rate: 10.9 percent

Housing prices: Down 2.9 percent.
Source: Brookings Institution MetroMonitor.



Top six
Large metro areas with the highest economic output rise in second quarter*:
1. Houston: up 1.7 percent
2. Austin: 1.2 percent
3. Las Vegas: 1.1 percent
4. McAllen: 1.1 percent
5. Dallas: 1.0 percent
6. Baltimore: 0.8 percent
*Note: Some cities show the same percentage increase due to rounding of numbers.
Source: Brookings Institution MetroMonitor.

Ft Bliss Monitor (http://fbmonitor.com/2011/08/17/replacement-campus-being-built-to-care-for-america%E2%80%99s-finest/)


Replacement campus being built to care for America’s fine

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/0813/20110813__0814-A1-BEAUMONT_300.jpg

Clarence Davis III,
WBAMC Public Affairs:

Team Bliss staff and families, local health care leaders and five members of Maj. (Dr.) William Beaumont’s family attended the Aug. 12 groundbreaking ceremony for the William Beaumont Army Medical Center replacement campus. During the middle 1800s, while serving in the Army, Beaumont did research in gastric physiology.

The campus is being built on a 272-acre unimproved site located near the intersection of Spur 601 and Loop 375. The scheduled completion date is 2016. This $966-million complex will have 1.132 million square feet with eight separate structures supporting inpatient care, specialty outpatient care and administrative staff.

“Seven buildings will be rated gold and one building will be rated platinum on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. … The current Defense Department standard is silver,” said Col. Dennis D. Doyle, WBAMC commander, in his welcoming remarks. LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance, environmentally friendly buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

[...]

Public input on the new San Jacinto Plaza plan is ongoing.

http://www.elpasotexas.gov/community/citybeat_resources/San%20Jacinto_Plaza%20DK%20(2)_Page_2.jpg

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_18919070)


Mix at Union Plaza to offer housing, retail
by Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 09/18/2011

http://www.elpasotexas.gov/downtown/things_to_do/parks_and_plazas/union_plaza_park/fullsize/union_plaza_2_fs.jpg

Octavio Gomez stands across the street from the future site of The Mix at Union Plaza. (Ruben R Ramirez / El Paso Times)Octavio Gomez, who's had a big part in developing the Union Plaza District by opening nightclubs and a restaurant there, now wants to give the area another boost by adding new apartments to the mix.

The Mix at Union Plaza is what Gomez has named the 93-year-old building at 516 San Antonio, where he plans to put 15 apartments on the top floor and 8,000 square feet of retail and office-studio spaces on the ground floor.

Gomez said he's spending almost $2 million on the project, including the purchase price of the building. It's expected to be completed in January. It will have modern, one- to three-bedroom apartments, which probably will rent from $550 to $1,200 per month, Gomez said.

The building previously had low-income apartments, which were emptied for the renovation, Gomez said. "Union Plaza already is a nightclub district. We need to expand beyond that," Gomez said. The area needs housing where people who work in the clubs and others seeking a Downtown lifestyle can live, he said. It also needs art galleries and retail spaces, he said.

Lifelong Union Plaza resident Gilbert Guillen, who owns residential and commercial property in Union Plaza, and has been the district's biggest booster, said Gomez's project "further enhances the plan of Union Plaza." That plan, put into place 15 years ago, calls for having residences on buildings' top floors and businesses on ground floors, he said.

Gomez's project is next to the Black Pearl nightclub, on the ground floor of a building renovated about two years ago. Fourteen renovated apartments are above the nightclub. "Anything that increases the trend of living Downtown is beneficial," said Jose Adan Fong, who owns the Black Pearl building. "Any new developments that flourish is an evident sign that we are heading in the right direction" with Union Plaza, he said.

Guillen said about 650 people call the Union Plaza District home. They are mostly low-income families who live in old apartment buildings and in some single-family homes.

[...]

El Paso Inc (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_aebe35a0-ede7-11e0-a316-0019bb30f31a.html)


New nursing, health sciences building for UTEP
Posted: Monday, October 3, 2011

http://www.campaignforutep.org/cmsimages/Construction_Dec._Nursing.jpg

Officials and guests cut a ribbon of orange surgical gloves Thursday, as the University of Texas at El Paso officially opened the new $60-million home for its College of Health Sciences and School of Nursing.

The Bhutanese-style structure includes labs, classrooms and research space, and a 16,000-square-foot simulation center where students train in "real life" health scenarios.

The five-story, 130,000-square-foot facility serves nearly 3,000 students studying social work, public health sciences, kinesiology, clinical laboratory science and interdisciplinary health sciences programs, as well as undergraduate and graduate nursing programs and the Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center.

[...]


http://www.texasarchitect.org/ta/2009-01/intro2.jpg
rendering

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_19072031)


Montecillo complex eyes spring opening
By Cindy Ramirez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 10/09/2011

http://www.elpasotimes.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp&contentItemRelationshipId=4010271

The Monticello Apartment Complex is going up along North Mesa just north of the intersection with Castellano Drive. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)The Venue at Montecillo is taking shape, the wood frames of the four-building apartment complex towering prominently over North Mesa Street.

"We're on schedule and the first building should be delivered in April," said David Bogas, director of development for EPT Land Communities. "The other three will be delivered shortly thereafter."

The Venue at Montecillo, a 290-unit apartment complex facing North Mesa between Executive and Festival streets, will include 15,000 square feet of retail space on its ground floor. Bogas said he hopes the first building is ready to receive tenants as early as May.

"We're already receiving calls," he said, and he added that a number of people have also stopped at the construction site to inquire about leasing and employment opportunities. "There certainly is interest."

The complex will sit next to the city's first Smart Code community being done by the same developers. Smart Code refers to an urban-planning method that promotes pedestrian-friendly development by concentrating residential growth in compact areas surrounded by schools, parks and shopping.

The 290-acre Smart Code development known as Montecillo will have about 4,500 apartments, townhouses and single-family homes, as well as retail, commercial and open spaces.

Bogas said he expects to deliver the detailed development land plans to the city within 60 days -- months earlier than has been expected. "They still have about six months to submit their plans," said Matthew

McElroy, deputy director of the city planning department.
McElroy said EPT could receive an incentive of up to $22 million in property tax rebates over 20 years from the city for using Smart Code in the $777 million development.

Two other Smart Code projects are being planned, including the 204-acre Aldea development near Interstate 10 and Executive Center Boulevard and the 240-acre El Cruzero at the northeast corner of Joe Battle Boulevard and Montana Avenue.

"There is a growing interest in these projects," McElroy said. "They're a new product, and this concept is getting a lot of attention." Bogas said he's looking forward to all of the EPT developments' components and ultimately "turning into reality what we've envisioned."

[...]

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_19146143)


City takes next step in medical center development
By Marty Schladen/El Paso Times
Posted: 10/19/2011

http://umcfoundationelpaso.org/upload/content/mca-master-planweb3.jpg

The El Paso City Council this week took another step to incubate biomedical companies at the Medical Center of the Americas.
The medical center is a major pillar in the council's economic-development strategy.

The council on Tuesday voted to lease an 11.7-acre parcel to the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation on which the incubator will be built.

[...]

El Paso Inc. (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_baf61888-f8e6-11e0-874e-0019bb30f31a.html)


City moves on Downtown streetcar project
Posted: Monday, October 17, 2011
By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/images/streetcar-4706-20.jpg

Six streetcars, once a fixture of life and work in Downtown El Paso, languish outside at El Paso International Airport. A family of hawks periodically makes one its home. The windows are busted. Another is covered in graffiti. But the internal components are OK, experts say. And while it would be an expensive undertaking, the streetcars could be refurbished, they say.

It's a description that could also fit the latest effort by some local politicos to bring streetcars back to Downtown. They're dusting off the old studies, lubing the political gears, and trying to rebuild the political will to move the project forward again. "If the community really embraces this, we can have this done within a five-to-eight year timeframe, if we are aggressive," says city Rep. Steve Ortega, who is a member of the local Metropolitan Planning Organization board responsible for transportation planning.

[...]

"The jury is still out with the trolleys to me," says El Paso Mayor John Cook, who has been a major champion of the bus rapid transit system now under construction. "Trolley's are expensive, and I don't think people who visit a city make it a destination to go there. We have a limited supply of resources, and you have to make sure you do the most with those resources," he says.

Ortega responds that he would happily swap a few of the eight direct connectors planned for the Eastside "spaghetti bowl" for a streetcar system in Downtown. The connectors - also called flyover lanes - will link Loop 375 and I-10, and cost upwards of $25 million each, according to estimates by the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization. "I feel like many transportation projects go through unscrutinized when it comes to cost, but all of a sudden you propose a mass transit policy and all these red flags go up," Ortega says.

Although many different cost estimates have been thrown out there, the most recent streetcar study published in November puts the price tag at around $90 million. But the study also puts the economic development impact at $360 million or as high as $1 billion. "What's critical about fixed transit is the permanence increases the land value adjacent to it," Escobar says. "A bus route can move depending on ridership and usage but, if there is a fixed rail route with a stop where dozens, if not hundreds of people congregate, you are going to want to put up a shop if you are a business owner."

The $90 million would build a streetcar system that runs four miles up Oregon, Mesa or Stanton streets, according to the study. The streetcar line would start at the Paso Del Norte port of entry, run through the Golden Horseshoe shopping district and newly designated arts district in Downtown, through El Paso Community College's Rio Grande Campus as well as the Union Plaza and Cincinnati entertainment districts, Kern Place, and loop around at the University of Texas at El Paso and the Sun Bowl. "You could have dinner Downtown, then jump on a streetcar and go to a UTEP basketball game," Escobar says.

In its heyday, El Paso's streetcar system had 63 miles of track, 17 routes, and 100 electric cars, according to historian Dawson.

[...]

El Paso Inc. (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_baf61888-f8e6-11e0-874e-0019bb30f31a.html)

Speaking for Fort Worth:

If this happens I'll be more pissed than ever before.:gaah:

It may *officially* be a few more decades away but it's indeed coming...
As of the 2000 census the commuting percentage between Dona Ana County to El Paso County, and vice versa was about 8% of the 15% needed to become one combined CSA. I'm sure in the 2010 census it will likely be 11% or 12% by now and by 2020's census it will happen.

El Paso's seeing a lot of growth. Texas sort of reminds me of Australia in many ways. Eastern Australia has all the main cities and the western half of the state has one very large prominent city completely isolated by hundreds and thousands of miles from the others on the other side of the country, Perth. What I mean to say is that although the Texas Triangle is the part of the state that's booming the most, Texas needs to keep its focus on El Paso too. El Paso is a great asset to Texas, and El Paso/Las Cruces together are already 25% of the population of Phoenix. If Texas can somehow do more public relation work for El Paso then it can see much larger growth from California and the snowbirds from the Midwest.

I hope Texas figures that situation out, lots of untapped potential for El Paso. It's an economical asset being as close to the border as it is. Lots of logistics and trade options to be had in my opinion.

As of the 2000 census the commuting percentage between Dona Ana County to El Paso County, and vice versa was about 8% of the 15% needed to become one combined CSA. I'm sure in the 2010 census it will likely be 11% or 12% by now and by 2020's census it will happen.

El Paso's seeing a lot of growth. Texas sort of reminds me of Australia in many ways. Eastern Australia has all the main cities and the western half of the state has one very large prominent city completely isolated by hundreds and thousands of miles from the others on the other side of the country, Perth. What I mean to say is that although the Texas Triangle is the part of the state that's booming the most, Texas needs to keep its focus on El Paso too. El Paso is a great asset to Texas, and El Paso/Las Cruces together are already 25% of the population of Phoenix. If Texas can somehow do more public relation work for El Paso then it can see much larger growth from California and the snowbirds from the Midwest.

I hope Texas figures that situation out, lots of untapped potential for El Paso. It's an economical asset being as close to the border as it is. Lots of logistics and trade options to be had in my opinion.

El Paso has benefitted from Ft Bliss being dramatically expanded with 25,000 additional soldiers and unfortunately, it has benefitted from the chaos in Juarez that forced many frightened business owners to move their operations there. The last time that happened was during the Mexican rebellion in 1916 that led to a big growth spurt in El Paso. But the city has chronic water problems which has held it back in comparison with Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Las Cruces is Austin to El Paso's San Antonio. It has a more balanced demographic, higher levels of education, and much more water. Home prices in Las Cruces are nearly 50% higher than El Paso's. As more manufacturing and logistic development comes into the area it should see another growth spurt but because wages and salaries in El Paso are generally lower, commuting patterns have not been impacted much so I'm seeing just slow, organic growth in commuting and not any big magnet effects.

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_19223751)


Artisan Hotel in Downtown El Paso may have suitor in Starwood hotel family
By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Times
Posted: 10/31/2011

http://cdn2.rtstc.com/media/lg/07/38/073877e2f5-Artisan_Hotel_El_Paso.jpghttp://hotelsharbor.com/photos/New%20Mexico/La%20Union/new_mexico_la_union_artisan_hotel_el_paso/artisan_hotel_el_paso_la_union_2.jpg

A Dallas hotel operator says he has a national hotel brand interested in the vacant Artisan Hotel.

Perry Molubhoy, president of Atlantic Hotels, which operates five brand-name hotels in Dallas, said last week that Aloft, a new brand in the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide hotel family, has indicated interest in the Artisan for a possible franchise.

Atlantic has an agreement to buy the bankrupt, 126-room Artisan for $2 million from a Las Vegas investors group.

Molubhoy said last week he received what he called a "soft letter" from Starwood indicating interest in the Artisan building as a possible Aloft franchise. Molubhoy said he can use the letter to go to lenders to try to get financing for the hotel, which would need about $12 million worth of renovations to become an Aloft, he said.

Molubhoy said he could not provide a copy of the letter to the El Paso Times because it contains proprietary information.

Jennifer Leemann, a spokeswoman for Starwood Hotels at its White Plains, N.Y., headquarters, said in an email that the company has no comment on whether Aloft has interest in the Artisan location.

Molubhoy said Atlantic needs a franchise commitment from Aloft before it can buy the Artisan. It will probably take another 60 days to do things necessary to get that commitment, he said.

[...]

Imagine downtown El Paso's skyline being reinvented in some 30/40 years from now. http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae172/ChrissMann/289047_283951328299736_100000546132111_1110466_136223871_o1.jpg

I wonder if Juarez will actually have those towers! ;)

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/communities/ci_19277919)


Development at Northpark Mall may have bus system, shopping, housing and park
by David Burge \ El Paso Times
Posted: 11/07/2011

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2011/1106/20111106_052328_0265418_4[1]_300.jpg
Ciy rep. Carl L. Robinson shows some preliminary plans for possible redevelopment at Northpark Mall. The city is looking to partner with a private developer to create a mass-transit-friendly community. (Ruben R Ramirez / El Paso Times)The city of El Paso has some big plans for the defunct Northpark Mall.

The city, which now owns the property, wants to create what's called a transit-oriented development there. This will be a blend of housing -- apartments, condominiums and town houses -- retail shopping, a new bus terminal and a park, city officials said.

[...]

ElPasoInc (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_871f2db6-19e2-11e1-a6a2-001a4bcf6878.html)


New path to link Downtown districts

http://borderzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/downtown-el-paso.jpg

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer | 0 comments

The city of El Paso wants to make it easier for the 1.5 million yearly visitors to Downtown's arts district to have dinner and a drink with the million visitors to the Union Plaza entertainment district, and vice versa.

Right now, it's a somewhat drab 20-minute walk if you want to, say, visit the Downtown museums then catch dinner at The Garden or Tabla in Union Plaza, assuming you know your way around. But El Paso's Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, or MCAD, has $50,000 to design a walking highway that would connect the two Downtown districts and reduce the walking time to five minutes.

---

It's not clear what route the new path could take, but there are proposals.

At the design charrette, expect the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau to weigh in with a proposed route. Bryan Crowe, the CVB's assistant general manager, said they are recommending a route that would take pedestrians around the northern side of the El Paso Convention Center, between the railroad tracks and the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce parking lot.

While city officials couldn't say when the path might be finished, Crowe said it's crucial that the path be done before the U.S. Bowling Congress's Men's Championship in 2015. It will be held at the convention center and is expected to give the city a $75-million economic boost. "One of the things we learned during the women's championships in 2010," McGlynn said, "is that we didn't really have a lot of signage Downtown so there wasn't a way for them to really orient themselves." The path could also make it easier for Union Plaza visitors to find parking by providing a better link between the district and the convention center's parking garage and the new Mills Plaza Parking Garage, Crowe said.

Meanwhile, the city is moving forward and working with private developers to design the Mills Avenue Pedestrian Promenade, another pedestrian pathway, that will close Mills Street and Sheldon Court to vehicular traffic between the Mills Building and the Plaza Hotel in Downtown. Crowe said the pedestrian promenade could potentially link up with the proposed pedestrian pathway.

The pathway is a small piece of a larger effort by the city, Downtown business owners and tourism officials to make Downtown a friendlier place for pedestrians. The Downtown Management District, a quasi-governmental entity governed largely by Downtown business and property owners, is working with the city to improve pedestrian "wayfinding" in Downtown through the use of signs, maps, creative landscaping and public art that orient Downtown visitors.

[...]

New bill boosts public-private projects (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_9957482a-3aed-11e1-8fe7-001a4bcf6878.html)


A new Texas law could help local officials fund ambitious public projects in El Paso, like a proposed Downtown arena or a third building at Texas Tech's fledgling med school here.

The Texas Legislature passed the Public and Private Facilities and Infrastructure Act last May, and it became law in September, but few know about it.

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/the-huddle/2011/01/27/cowboysx-large.jpg

Thu Jan 12, 2012.

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer | 0 comments


A new Texas law could help local officials fund ambitious public projects in El Paso, like a proposed Downtown arena or a third building at Texas Tech's fledgling med school here.

The Texas Legislature passed the Public and Private Facilities and Infrastructure Act last May, and it became law in September, but few know about it.

The act encourages and provides more oversight for public-private partnerships in Texas - an arrangement where private entities share the costs, risks and profits of public projects.

"What has made public-private partnerships popular and necessary lately here is that governments have run out of money," said Barrett Wood, CEO of Austin-based consulting firm Longbow Partners, which lobbied for the legislation. Wood left his El Paso law practice a year and a half ago to head the firm.

Possibly the best-known public-private partnership, or P3, in Texas is Cowboys Stadium. The behemoth is owned by the City of Arlington and leased by the Dallas Cowboys, owned by Jerry Jones.

[...]

El Paso Inc (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_21291320-4b68-11e1-a799-001a4bcf6878.html)


Children's hospital raises spirits & questions
$122 million unit part of $276 million county project
Posted: Monday, January 30, 2012 9:02 am | Updated: 3:38 pm, Mon Jan 30, 2012.

By David Crowder El Paso Inc. staff writer | 0 comments

http://www.mcamericas.org/templates/photos/EPCH-Vertical_Photo_Feb2012.jpg


Shiny floors, state of the art equipment and that brand-new smell await the arrival of the first patients at the $122.5 million El Paso Children's Hospital in a little over two weeks.

The children's hospital is part of a massive makeover costing close to $300 million on the grounds of University Medical Center (UMC), formerly Thomason Hospital, which has been under way since 2007.

The grand opening for the public is next Saturday, Feb. 11. On Feb. 14, the 122-bed hospital taking up the top four floors in the new 10-story building will start moving patients in from UMC and accepting new ones.

Also on Valentine's Day, the 103-bed Women's Pavilion - its's new quarters for its's labor and delivery department - will be moving its patients over and accepting expectant moms.

The price tag for the new building, which includes other services on the first floor, is close to $235 million.

Many see the not-for-profit children's hospital as a huge community achievement, on par with the four-year Paul L. Foster School of Medicine - one that will raise medical care for children to a new level and serve as a beacon to pediatricians and pediatric specialists El Paso badly needs.

But the children's hospital's financing is complex, and some wonder where the money will come from to run it and pay the high salaries of pediatricians and pediatric specialists recruited to work there.

Ultimately, the question is whether the El Paso Children's Hospital, a private, non-profit corporation that will not have direct access to local tax revenues or a wealthy corporate parent to cover losses, will be financially viable in the long run.

[...]

I really love all united state city :)

I really love all united state city :)

Thanx! Loads of diversity out here! :)

I love El Paso, it has one of the most lively downtowns in the South. Definitely has something to do with the mountains retaining the city in such a nice dense area.

I wonder if Juarez will actually have those towers! ;)

Most likely since there is a skyscraper construction boom in Mexico right now. But I don't think anything over 15 stories will be built in the next few years :ohno:

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19967038)


Dyer transit project gets federal support

By David Burge \ EL PASO TIMESelpasotimes.com
Posted: 02/15/2012

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2012/0108/20120108__0109-zne-Northpark~1-c_400.jpg
Northpark Mall demolition in progress ahead of new housing, transit developments along Dyer St.

The city of El Paso's plans to build a rapid-transit corridor along Dyer Street are about to take the next step forward.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recommended on Tuesday that $15.2 million be included in the federal fiscal year 2013 budget for the Dyer Corridor Rapid Transit System project. "It basically means we are one step closer to start designing this corridor," said Sun Metro spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta.

The 12-mile transit corridor would start at Sun Metro's Downtown transfer station and end at a new Northeast terminal, which will be built at the demolished Northpark Mall, replacing a small bus station already there. It would also serve the Five Points terminal and have a stop near the Cassidy Gate at Fort Bliss.

This corridor will use buses but with a technological edge. It will be like "light rail on rubber tires," Cruz-Acosta said. "It would be more efficient" bus service, she said.

The system will use technology that could lengthen a green light or shorten a red light to allow for more efficient travel for the buses, Cruz-Acosta said. The public will also prepay, which will speed up the process. Bus stops will be about a mile apart instead of every block, she said.

The total cost for the project will be about $35.25 million. Sun Metro is hoping to get an additional $5.2 million from the Federal Transit Administration. The rest would come from a combination of city and state funding, Cruz-Acosta said. The plan is for the Dyer corridor to be done by fall 2014.

The Dyer project is the third rapid-transit corridor that the city is developing. Others, along Mesa and Alameda, are planned to be ready by, respectively, the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. A fourth is planned for Montana and could open by the fall of 2015

[...]


Award winning Sun Metro transit center concept:
http://planelpaso.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Transit-Station.jpg
Plan El Paso


mK6n5WXtrys

26334950

Retail, rentals to open in Union Plaza (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_cae7673a-616c-11e1-8457-001a4bcf6878.html)
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/elpasoinc.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/b6/db63dc08-616f-11e1-a114-001a4bcf6878/4f4bcab768015.image.jpg
The Mix
A $1.5-million renovation has transformed a century-old tenement in the Union Plaza entertainment district into an upscale, urban apartment and retail complex called The Mix.

El Paso entrepreneur Octavio Gomez’s newest project, the largest investment the young entrepreneur has ever made, opens this week in Downtown El Paso.

The $1.5-million renovation has transformed a tired, century-old tenement in the Union Plaza entertainment district into an upscale, urban apartment and retail complex called The Mix.

“People are showing interest and calling every day, if not, I’d be having a heart attack,” Gomez says. “It should be good, especially with all the things that are going on in Downtown. Something big is going to happen down here, whether it’s Texas Tech’s School of Architecture in El Paso moving Downtown or a Downtown arena.”

On the second floor, most of the 14 apartments at The Mix are leased, Gomez says, and four commercial spaces totaling 2,500-square-feet have been leased on the ground floor.

Although small and clearly tailored for singles or young married couples, the apartments have an upscale urban look with their stainless steel appliances, distressed wood floors and fancy bathroom fixtures.

A solar engineer has leased space for an office and will live in an apartment above, Gomez says. There will also be an art studio and two boutiques.

^^

Downtown is enjoying its first resurgence in 40 years! A lot of buildings still await renovation but the energy and focus by the city a few local guys like Octavio Gomez is starting to yield results! :cheers:

It's anticipated but unlikely before 2040 or 2050. But El Paso leaders are pushing for more of that city's growth to be directed westward and towards Las Cruces so an urban wall of growth to the state line is inevitable before then. Las Cruces has been growing eastward toward the Organ Mountains and while valley land is being protected, mesa land is slated for development around both cities and between them. By 2050 the El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces region is expected to have 5 million residents.

I asked that question twice, once earlier in this thread my apologies but are the communities between Las Cruces and El Paso growing as well?

I asked that question twice, once earlier in this thread my apologies but are the communities between Las Cruces and El Paso growing as well?

Some more quickly than others. The crazy thing is that incorporated towns are moving slowly while unincorporated communities tend to just spring up like weeds. It could be a bit of a mess once the big developers come in and these places incorporate to organize the chaos. Sunland Park just announced a $400 million development that will grow the city by 4-5,000 people. Santa Teresa has a massive development plan engineered by the Verde Group that could fit as many as 300,000 people upon full buildout. The water is there but the jobs are slow to come in. A $400 million intermodal rail hub being developed by Union Pacific could help change that...

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20148911/plan-el-paso-earns-praise-from-epa-glimpse)



Glimpse into El Paso's future: Plan El Paso earns praise from EPA

by Chris Roberts \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 03/11/2012 12:00:00 AM MST

http://bettercities.net/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-content-width/plan-el-paso-rend.jpg
http://bettercities.net/news-opinion/links/17570/plan-el-paso-approved

A far-reaching plan expected to guide El Paso's growth and development for decades promises to cure urban ills -- including obesity, social alienation and rising taxes. "Plan El Paso," a comprehensive blueprint based on Smart Growth principles, received unanimous approval from the El Paso City Council last week. It has already gained national recognition.

A draft version of the plan was among five winners of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2011 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. The agency said it is a "comprehensive, transit-oriented development plan (that) will help link neighborhoods to greater economic opportunity and to one another, creating new homes and jobs."

Kaid Benfield, the National Resources Defense Council's sustainable communities director, wrote an extended blog post on the plan last week. "It is among the best, most articulate comprehensive plans I have ever seen," Benfield wrote. "Early on, the new document makes clear that it is time for a bold new vision and commitment."

He quotes from the plan: "In recent years health problems such as obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and the maladies associated with social alienation have become a normal response to a built-environment that does not allow walking or facilitate human interaction. The young and the elderly of El Paso, especially, have been left behind by urban forms that necessitate driving long distances."

http://cdn.theatlanticcities.com/img/upload/2012/03/08/6816627008_a1b3a1dcf7_d/largest.jpg
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2012/03/how-el-paso-ended-americas-best-smart-growth-plan/1440/

Smart Growth communities encourage social interaction, physical activity and economic efficiency. The philosophy draws from pre-World War II urban design concepts that mostly fell by the wayside as the automobile increasingly dominated American culture.

Desired development would resemble Sunset Heights or Kern Place, which represent two different types of development possible under the new plan. SmartCode -- El Paso created its own version of this Smart Growth tool -- generally calls for neighborhoods with higher population densities that mix businesses and residences. The overall appearance is meant to please the eye.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7190/6816626966_93c9944a65_d.jpg
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2012/03/how-el-paso-ended-americas-best-smart-growth-plan/1440/

In El Paso's future, people living in "community centers" throughout the city would be able to walk to businesses selling goods and services that satisfy everyday needs. Street-level storefronts entice people strolling along tree-shaded promenades. Apartments above the businesses provide some of the higher-density housing. Public areas described as "outdoor living rooms" encourage people to get out and socialize.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5371860072_4a1d3373d0.jpg
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/could_el_paso_become_a_model_o.html

As those people -- neighbors and business owners -- get to know each other, criminal activity is displaced. Regular exercise improves residents' health. And as people spend less time in their cars polluting, the air also becomes easier to breathe. Community centers and other busy public destinations are linked by extensive bike-trail networks and a rapid transit system.

It is believed that this kind of design will, at least in some measure, re-create the idyllic lifestyle of small-town America with a contemporary flair.

[...]

El Paso Timaes (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20147453/land-deals-studied-new-tornillo-port)


Land deals studied for new Tornillo port

By Cindy Ramirez \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 03/11/2012 12:00:00 AM MST

http://www.turnerconstruction.com/Files/ProjectImage?url=%2Fsites%2Fmarketingstories%2FMarketing%2520Story%2520Images%2Foriginal.e9cd9c1b-c7c2-4942-8cab-9446a5e6c644.jpg&width=707&height=470&crop=True&jpegQuality=95
http://www.turnerconstruction.com/experience/project/2756/tornillo-guadalupe-land-port-of-entry

El Paso County Commissioners Court on Monday will consider purchasing several parcels of farmland from Lower Valley families or contracting with them for temporary use of their properties to continue building sewer lines for the Tornillo-Guadalupe Port of Entry.

The county is building the utility lines on property adjoining privately owned land, a project that requires the county to enter into contracts with the landowners for temporary access to the property.

Other contracts call for land swaps between the county and Lower Valley residents to reroute roads or provide rights of way for the construction project.

The easements and land are needed to build the sewer lines to serve the port of entry, which will include a federal customs facility, a bridge and a new road that connects it to Interstate 10.

The county has awarded about 200 contracts for the construction of the $133 million international bridge.

The port of entry, bridge and toll facility are expected to open in spring 2013. The first phase of the Manuel F. Aguilera Highway that will connect the port of entry to Alameda Avenue is expected to be completed in August.

The port of entry, expected to be one of the largest along the U.S.-Mexico border, will consist of a six-lane commercial and noncommercial toll bridge.

It will replace the Fabens-Caseta crossing, a narrow two-lane bridge whose weight limit does not allow for commercial traffic.

-----

Wow! El Paso has some really nice projects coming! :)

Every downtown in the region is getting a makeover: El Paso, Las Cruces, Chihuahua, Juarez; it's nice that they're tending to be more pedestrian-friendly with BRT, bike lanes, pedestrian-only promenades... Our region is getting really nice.
El Paso is going to look amazing in a couple years. I think El Paso's project is similar to ours, you may check it out over here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1490225) if you want :)
I've been to El Paso many times, but I haven't been a tourist around the downtown. Next time I go, that's gotta be my first stop.

Every downtown in the region is getting a makeover: El Paso, Las Cruces, Chihuahua, Juarez; it's nice that they're tending to be more pedestrian-friendly with BRT, bike lanes, pedestrian-only promenades... Our region is getting really nice.
El Paso is going to look amazing in a couple years. I think El Paso's project is similar to ours, you may check it out over here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1490225) if you want :)
I've been to El Paso many times, but I haven't been a tourist around the downtown. Next time I go, that's gotta be my first stop.

Thanks and welcome to the forum! El Paso has terrific plans for the future but it will take time to implement although some of the first projects are already happening. Las Cruces is moving in the same doirection and Juarez has a lot of fantastic plans that will be happening in the coming years. But my hopes for a huge block-wide landscaped bridge and transit corridor between El Paso and Juarez could be decades away. It was one of the best ideas I've ever seen for both cities but got cut short by all the other stuff going on...

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20176873/txdot-land-buy-okd)


TxDOT land buy OK'd; Trans Mountain spur to link I-10, Doniphan
By AIleen B. Flores \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 03/15/2012 12:00:00 AM MDT

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2012/0314/20120314__0315-a1-psb-bw_500.jpg

The El Paso Public Service Board on Wednesday agreed to sell 26 acres near Canutillo High School to connect Trans Mountain Road from Interstate 10 to Doniphan Drive.

The Texas Department of Transportation will pay about $793,000 for the land to build Spur 276, a connector that will bypass Talbot Avenue in Canutillo.

Officials said the project will cost $22 million.

Christina Montoya, a spokes woman for the Public Service Board, said the El Paso City Council now has to approve the sale so plans can move forward.

The proposed Spur 276 will consist of a four-lane divided road with bicycle lanes and sidewalks from I-10 at Talbot Avenue -- near the outlet mall, the Westside Sports Complex, El Paso Community College Northwest Campus and Canutillo High School -- to Doniphan Drive.

Blanca Del Valle, a TxDOT spokeswoman, said the proposed road will improve mobility in Northwest El Paso and relieve congestion in the Canutillo area.

[...]

http://i45.tinypic.com/e3ar9.gif

Clearance and abatement of the ASARCO site is well under way. The dispute about preserving the 800+ ft smokestack continues. Demolition is scheduled for later this year if it can't be saved.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7200/6788192366_b64b926b04_b_d.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mescalito99/

Downtown El Paso's convention, arts centers face upgrades (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20579202/convention-arts-centers-face-upgrades)


http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2007/12/large_AbrahamChavezTheatre.jpg

The City Council on Tuesday approved $2.5 million to upgrade the Convention and Performing Arts Centers in Downtown. The two-year improvement plan includes projects for the El Paso convention center, the Abraham Chavez Theatre, the Plaza Theatre and the Downtown visitors center.

Bryan Crowe, assistant general manager for the convention center, said most of the money will be spent on the convention center, which was renovated in 2002 and had some improvements to its exterior in 2010. About $1.1 million will be used to install a security system, renovate concession areas and add new technology.

The Chavez theater will receive about $175,000 in upgrades, which will include fixing the elevators, the roof and some lights. "These are just things that have to be done in order to keep the facility operational," Crowe said. The theater was built in the early 1970s, and it has not had any major reinvestments since then, he said.

The city had a plan to renovate the Abraham Chavez Theatre, but it was put on hold, pending the outcome of the quality-of-life bond election in November. The city is proposing a multipurpose facility as part of the bond election. The recommendation is that if it passes, the city will replace the Chavez theater with a multipurpose arena, said City Manager Joyce Wilson.



The $600-800 million quality of life bond election could mean many more ammenities downtown if the city reduces the foolish stadium component.

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_20594708/proposed-655-million-bond-cant-be-one-item)


Proposed $655 million bond can't be one item on November ballot, Texas AG says

http://jdlong.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/nighttime-downtown-el-paso.jpg

By Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 05/10/2012 03:29:45 PM MDT

The city's November bond issue cannot be an all-or-nothing proposal and instead should be broken down into two or more categories for voters, according to the Texas Attorney General.
"Our financial adviser and bond counsel are working with us to figure out how to write the questions that are to appear on the ballot for voters," City Manager Joyce Wilson said, adding that the projects would likely have to be grouped by functionality. "It's part of the process that we communicate with the attorney general for guidance on some issues, and we don't have all the details yet."

The Public Finance Division of the Attorney General reviews all proposed bonds and their authorizing proceedings to ensure they're legally valid. The division pays special attention to bonds for sports facilities or economic development, which is what local leaders have been talking about.

The attorney general cannot rule on the "wisdom of the financing method" or the "advisability of particular project," according to the division's website. Officials with the attorney general's office said they have made no specific recommendation, but said the division head has been in communication with the city's bond attorney on the matter.

City leaders had said they wanted to present the $655 million to $835 million bond issue as a one-item ballot in November. But what projects will actually appear on the ballot, how they will be grouped and how the items will be worded is still in the works, Wilson said. As an example, she said, parks and recreation could be one category and museums and cultural affairs another.

The big question remains whether the proposed sports facilities need to be in their own category or listed individually, particularly since they have different conditions and financing options other than voter-approved bonds. Among the potential funding sources are increases to the hotel occupancy tax and the vehicle rental tax, ticket surcharges and team and sponsor payments, as well as revenues from the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone and the Downtown Management District.

Wilson and other city staff presented a preliminary list of projects that may be included in the bond during an April 18 special council meeting. Among them were signature Downtown projects such as a $150 million multipurpose arena; a $45 million to $55 million Triple-A baseball stadium, which would be contingent on securing a team; and a $100 million to $120 million soccer stadium , also contingent on whether a stand-alone facility is needed to secure a team.

The list also included $10 million to $20 million for general Downtown improvements; $30 million for new museums and museum upgrades; $125 million for parks, pools and community centers, including a 50-meter competition swimming pool; $10 million for citywide neighborhood improvements; and $25 million for zoo upgrades and improvements.

City Council will meet May 24 to whittle down the list of projects - and likely the total cost - that may go to voters Nov. 6. A final list and amount would have to be approved by council in July. "We started with the moon, essentially," city Rep. Cortney Niland said. "I think there was some sticker shock, initially, so now we have to work to prioritize that wish list and see what's palatable to people and what's not."

One of the major changes expected to come out out of the May 24 meeting is that streets reconstruction may not appear on the ballot. City officials had estimated it needs up to $200 million to completely rebuild aging and deteriorating roads citywide.

[...]

TxDOT: $90 million to revive Downtown streetcars (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_7a035396-9af2-11e1-a30c-001a4bcf6878.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cH2HZcrSVyg/R6PsrPPWkPI/AAAAAAAAADU/BPeYoAu0bbo/s400/elpaso_stcar.jpg


The Texas Department of Transportation has $90 million to revive El Paso’s historic Downtown streetcar system, but it’s contingent on the city funding a new streetcar study, officials say.

Next Tuesday, City Council will consider spending about $4 million on a preliminary engineering and environmental assessment, says city Rep. Steve Ortega. He is a member of the local Metropolitan Planning Organization board responsible for transportation planning in El Paso.

If City Council passes the measure and the study doesn’t raise any red flags, TxDOT can move forward with funding the reconstruction of a portion of the streetcar system that graced Downtown El Paso until it was shut down in 1974, confirms El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar, who chairs a light rail subcommittee in El Paso.

“It is going to seem like a small corridor for a whole lot of money but the payback is significantly higher in terms of economic impact,” Escobar says.

It’s a project that supporters say is vital for revitalizing Downtown but has been stymied for decades because there has been no funding.

The project has also been overshadowed by the $1 billion 2008 Comprehensive Mobility Plan that is improving El Paso’s highways, Ortega says.

“The streetcars are truly a great part of El Paso history and it adds this cool brand to mass transit that, quite frankly, the bus doesn’t have,” he says.

Montecillo, the $780 million development in West El Paso is under construction:

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/elpasoinc.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/ac/2accbd14-dd8b-11e0-979b-0019bb30f31a/4e6e81e4e7a58.image.jpg
http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_a7b97750-dd8a-11e0-8a5c-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=image&photo=

http://www.thevenueatmontecillo.com/images/001.jpg
http://www.thevenueatmontecillo.com/

El Paso Inc (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_20a81f6c-a221-11e1-8e34-001a4bcf6878.html)


Texas Tech takes step towards stand-alone campus

http://www.public-art-directory.com/news-photo/NEWS_50.jpg
http://www.public-art-directory.com/larry-kirkland-the-medical-school-at-el-paso-texas-tech-university-system-usa_artist-50.html

The Texas Tech University System Board of Regents will move forward to establish a full-fledged health sciences university in El Paso.

The board voted Friday to start the process of establishing a freestanding university here that would include Texas Tech’s Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing and a new graduate school of biomedical sciences in El Paso, according to an announcement.

“Having a freestanding health sciences university in El Paso will be a tremendous asset to the community and will further our efforts to address the shortages of health care professionals in the region and the entire state,” Texas Tech University System Chancellor Kent Hance said in a statement.

He added, “We look forward to working with the Texas Legislature to make this significant goal a reality.”

The university here will become the system’s fourth freestanding university, joining Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Angelo State University, according to the announcement.

[...]



http://archives.newspapertree.com/picture/medschool1.jpg
http://www.newspapertree.com/features/865-medical-school-missing-key-deadlines

Bond Issue: $190 Million Will Cover New Parks, Upgrades (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20719816/190-million-would-cover-new-parks-upgrades)

http://travel.southwest.com/content/current/destinations/allimages/379287-10.jpg



If approved by voters in November, about 40 percent of the $468 million quality-of-life bond issue will be used to build new parks and recreation centers and to improve existing ones, city officials said.

Among the top-dollar projects on the parks and recreation list are a new regional park for the far East Side; a soccer complex with up to 12 fields in an area to be determined later; two 50-meter competition pools on the East and West sides; two combination recreation centers and libraries in South Central and the Lower Valley; and a new recreation center in the Lower Valley.

Overall, about $190 million is targeted for parks, swimming pools and recreation centers.

"I'm glad that much of it is going to parks," said East Side resident Jesus Cordero, an avid parkgoer who coaches youth soccer and T-ball. "We can always use more parks and fields and centers that keep our young ones active."

El Paso's city parks system ranked 26th among the 40th largest U.S. cities, according to a recent study by the Trust for Public Land. The organization's ParkScore system rates cities on a scale of zero to five, and El Paso earned a two rating based on park access, size and services and investment. The city ranked fifth when it came to park space, but accessibility was a concern, the organization reported last week.

"I think the best investment we can make is in ourselves," city Rep. Cortney Niland said. "I'm really excited about this bond and our future."

The proposal

The City Council on Thursday approved the project list for the bond referendum. It includes the $190 million for parks and recreation facilities, $50 million for the zoo, $12 million for libraries, $36 million for museums and $180 million for a multipurpose sports and entertainment center.
The allocation of bond money for parks became a point of contention during Thursday's special council meeting, as city representatives advocated for projects for their districts.

In the end, representatives unanimously approved the parks and recreation projects, which will be presented to voters under one proposal to include all parks, recreation and amateur sports facilities such as soccer complexes and the competition pools.

A second proposal will group cultural and entertainment facilities such as libraries, museums and the multipurpose sports and entertainment center, into one category for voter approval.

A third proposal will ask for a 2 percent increase in the hotel occupancy tax to help support a venue for a possible Triple-A baseball team. If a team is secured for El Paso, the stadium would likely be a partnership between the city and the private sector.

The final projects will be included in a resolution to be approved by the City Council later this summer. The resolution will officially call for the bond election.

[...]

Clash of the transportation titans (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_a57cb984-a83c-11e1-8b4e-0019bb30f31a.html)

http://www.houstonfreeways.com/modern/images/2005-01_road_trip/el_paso/DSC00023_85_border_highway_2005-01-11_780.jpg


By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer |

He’s secured hundreds of millions of dollars to widen highways, raise giant interchanges and build spurs in El Paso. He’s promised money to bring back El Paso’s Downtown streetcars Now El Paso transportation titan Ted Houghton wants to fund a massive, $750 million project in the heart of El Paso. Long on El Paso’s wish list, the key stretch of tolled highway called Border Highway West in the Downtown area would close El Paso’s fragmented outer loop but has never been anything other than a long-term plan.

But in a meeting with El Paso Inc., Houghton, who is chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, said he expects to find state funding so that El Pasoans could be driving on the new highway as soon as 2015 or 2016. “We’ve had a few sources of revenue pop up,” Houghton said. The state, he added, “may pay for most of it.”

The proposed Border Highway West toll road is one of nearly 10 projects Houghton and transportation engineer Eduardo Calvo recently reviewed with El Paso Inc. The projects total nearly $1 billion and could be under construction in the next couple years, Houghton said.

But Houghton’s promises of money for El Paso streetcars a few weeks ago and now this funding for Border Highway West have caused a clash of the titans, insiders say.

El Paso’s other transportation titan is state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, who chairs the board of the local Metropolitan Planning Organization. Generally, the MPO oversees transportation planning in the region and decides what projects get funding and move forward first. “I’m not sure why TxDOT is picking out certain projects when all of this stuff has to be approved by the Metropolitan Planning Organization,” Pickett said.

Technically, Pickett is right, insiders say. But when hundreds of millions of dollars become available from the state for a certain project, who on the MPO is going to turn it down?



http://www.elpasomobility.org/img/map-main.png
http://www.elpasomobility.org/english/proposed-projects.php

Border Highway West needs an expensive leg through downtown along the border to finally close the 375 loop.

^^ At first glance, it appears that UTEP is only a stone's throw away from the U.S. border. :nuts:

^^ At first glance, it appears that UTEP is only a stone's throw away from the U.S. border. :nuts:

Actually, a portion of UTEP is within gunshot range of Mexico as someone found out recently. That part is mostly parking lots but there's a 12 story dorm that feels like it's in Mexico when you look out the top floor windows!

The Fountains Get A BIG Upgrade (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_e4914e26-adb1-11e1-a7eb-0019bb30f31a.html)

http://www.emjcorp.com/uploads/tinymce/3/Fountains%20Image%20for%20Announcement%201.jpg


Work starts on retail center after years of delay

Posted: Sunday, June 3, 2012 6:00 pm | Updated: 2:55 pm, Sun Jun 3, 2012.
By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

Dallas-based Centergy Retail has started construction on a long-delayed retail development at the site of the old Farah plant in El Paso, calling it one of the largest new commercial retail projects in the country. “El Paso has lacked significant retail development over the years and El Pasoans are starved for it,” says El Paso heavy hitter Paul Foster, the money behind the ambitious project.

It’s been more than four years since Foster, executive chairman of Western Refining, decided to transform the 50-acre site into a high-end retail center called The Fountains at Farah – his first foray into commercial retail development. The project was delayed by a drawn-out battle over tax incentives, opposition by area retailers and, most recently, the economy.

But now the project is back on track and the developer has upgraded its plans, spurred by an overwhelming interest from retailers looking for new markets like El Paso as the economy continues to sputter. “I have never had more demand than I have had for this project,” says Centergy Retail president West Miller.

That’s why the center at Interstate 10 and Hawkins, near Cielo Vista Mall, will not be built in phases as originally imagined, Miller says. Instead, it will all open at the same time, in October 2013. More than 50 percent of the center’s 615,000-square-feet of retail space is pre-leased, according to Miller. Exactly who those retailers are will be announced in the coming months, he says.

As many as 1,000 people are expected to be employed building the retail center at the peak of the construction. The general contractor is searching for as many as 40 subcontractors, executives say. While the plans for the design of the retail project have changed, the entitlements obtained from the city and county government remain the same.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5H9vfxaUjw/T9KI2hlhGXI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/xdyToB__G98/s1600/The+Fountains+at+Farah+-+Elevation2.png
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/fountains-images-show-designs-potential.html

62 Squared
http://arcroot.com/images/TRANS/TRANS_LARGE_001.jpg
http://arcroot.com/images/TRANS/TRANS_LARGE_005.jpg

DESCRIPTION: Sixty-two Squared is a residential mixed use development, consisting of 20, 1000 square foot, two story, apartment units and a commercial pad site. Located in Northeast El Paso, the project sits on the corner of a major intersection on a difficult site in a residential area.

http://arcroot.com/#

Hive
http://arcroot.com/images/HIVE/HIVE_LARGE_001.jpg
http://arcroot.com/images/HIVE/HIVE_LARGE_003.jpg

DESCRIPTION: Hive is a mixed use project aimed at transforming the urban environment by adding desirable and accommodating residential spaces for families and professionals. Re-inventing urban and downtown environments is vital to attracting and keeping young professionals and entrepreneurs in and to the city stimulating its economy and improving the lives of all its residences.

http://arcroot.com/#

Website Offers Glimpse of Montecillo's Future (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/05/website-offers-glimpse-of-montecillos.html)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U844bOv4k7k/T8J6zn13E5I/AAAAAAAAAVE/jGghnKFpkaw/s1600/Montecillo+New+1.bmp

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lf1ehfRLrlw/T8J_ZPx4jyI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/7zWPKJH6Ga4/s1600/Montecillo+New+3.bmp

Council Chooses Streetcar Route (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/council-chooses-streetcar-route.html)

A new streetcar route was chosen by City Council at its June 5, 2012 meeting. The new route creates a narrow loop for the future El Paso streetcar route which will use both Oregon and Stanton streets to connect Downtown and the UTEP area. The streetcars will travel north on Oregon Street, turn east at Glory Road/Baltimore, then south on Stanton Street. A downtown loop will travel east on Franklin Avenue, south on Kansas Street, west on Father Rahm, and north on Santa Fe Street.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b56wJBucIag/T8-lm4qiKfI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/SrCmHCRm4kw/s1600/Streetcar+2.bmp

^^

I can't agrue with those routes. The main drag will always be Mesa St. but it's better suited to something like a subway than a trolley line. ;)

KROD.com (http://krod.com/)

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/krod.com/files/2012/06/20120622_120331_0622-StadiumAerialArt_2_GALLERY.jpg?w=630&h=354&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89
KROD


El Paso City Council Approves Proposal To Demolish City Hall To Build New AAA Baseball Stadium

A plan by El Paso investor Paul Foster to replace City Hall with a $50 million, 9,000 - 10,000 seat AAA baseball park won city council approval on Tuesday. The plan calls for the 33 year old, City Hall to be razed and the new stadium constructed by 2014. The city government would be temporarily housed downtown while plans for a new city hall building are developed.

The City Hall site:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tIo3SMe1ZAQ/T70TsfTJIpI/AAAAAAAAAT0/uYygFcytHLc/s1600/City+Hall+1.bmp
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/05/city-may-demolish-city-hall-for.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9rAvnUVfyn0/T-tIkIAHzgI/AAAAAAAAEHs/FVLFifN0Pv0/s1600/Ballpark+illustration.jpg
http://elpasonaturally.blogspot.com/

Nordstrom Rack Signs Onto Fountains At Farah (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/nordstrom-rack-fountains-location.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5gn_PWBgS3Y/T-sUfJ2YzLI/AAAAAAAAAc4/salCl3CBcP4/s1600/Nordstrom+2.bmp


Nordstrom Rack this week became the first retailer to reveal itself as a tenant of the upcoming Fountains at Farah shopping center in east El Paso. Nordstrom, Inc., announced that the store will occupy approximately 35,000 square feet of space at the new center and will open in fall of 2013 when construction is scheduled for completion.

Conceptual image of Nordstrom Rack store at The Fountains.
According to unofficial renders, the store will be located in the eastern section of the center with other big box retailers. The center's architecture may include a modern aesthetic, and the conceptual image of the Nordstrom Rack store is in line with this design style.

Location of Nordstrom Rack within the center.
Now that a future Fountains at Farah tenant has made an announcement, other retailers may now feel comfortable making their intentions known to the public as well. In addition, this strong retail presence may entice other on-the-fence retailers to come on board with the center. Look for additional announcements in the coming months.

Nordstrom Rack is the discount arm of Nordstrom stores, offering merchandise at a higher discount than that seen in regular Nordstrom department stores.

Northeast El Paso Retirement Community On The Boards (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/ne-retirement-community-could-spring-up.html)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ptwdanTT7sQ/T9qeYzBlq6I/AAAAAAAAAZc/m7PKVzg3nT4/s1600/NE+RC+1.bmp


The Public Service Board's master planned retirement community adjacent to Painted Dunes Golf Course may begin construction as soon as next year, according to a newly released Master Zoning Plan. The 427 acre development will be built in three phases, with Phase 1 starting in 2013. Construction on all phases should be complete by 2023, according to the plan's timeline.

The layout of the community will be a gently curving grid, with several pedestrian and bicycle paths following north-south and east-west streets. Higher density buildings will be located towards the center of the development creating a small town center which will be highlighted by a central park and a civic building that will serve as a visual landmark. Densities will decrease outward from this area, transitioning from apartments/condos to town homes and row houses to single-family homes towards the outer edges of the community. A row of senior apartment buildings will line the golf course.

[...]

Newest Aldea Masterplan Reveals Changes, Districts (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/newest-aldea-master-plan-reveals.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mtCGgd12F0E/T96SYuSfcQI/AAAAAAAAAag/tT04dmUfo_8/s1600/Aldea+New+1.bmp

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49gRJ68bebU/T96SrPBu0TI/AAAAAAAAAao/Vdt_-F3Kc7c/s1600/Aldea+New+2.bmp


The developer for the future Aldea El Paso smart code project has made several tweaks to the latest version of the Master Site Plan, including relocating two hotel sites and grouping areas into distinctive districts. And a new map shows the combined area of both the Aldea and Montecillo smart code developments, which are adjacent to each other but have two different developers.

The districts now defined by the plan are: the Rambla district, which is the town center part of the development; an office district which lines both sides of Mesa Park Blvd.; the Walmart district, which now includes a smaller building in the parking lot, most likely a destination restaurant; an anchor retail district, which is to the south of the Walmart area; a freeway retail district; two housing districts; two hotel districts which look to include two large hotels and possible ancillary buildings; and two retail/housing districts that serve as entryways into the development from Mesa. The final large district is labeled "Campus" and is defined by the number of beds available. It is unclear what the focus of this district will be, but the name may denote some sort of school. A separate "convenience center" will be located at the corner of Executive Blvd and Interstate 10.

[...]


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zCXVM1hdrn0/T96YCae2BRI/AAAAAAAAAa8/QBvP-Z6MYNU/s1600/Aldea+New+8.bmp

Americas interchange Seven Months From Completion (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/americas-interchange-seven-months-from.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e2f7BVywNUk/T9GAagftSQI/AAAAAAAAAXo/5199ETzb7_c/s1600/Americas+2012+06+1.png


If all goes as planned, the current work on the interchange under construction at Interstate 10 and Loop 375 on the east side should be completed in seven months time. This includes the three direct connectors that are part of the project: eastbound I-10 to northbound Loop 375; southbound 375 to westbound I-10; and northbound 375 to westbound I-10.

The years-long project has had January 2013 as its target completion date since it began, and those involved with the project have previously stated that they expect to make or beat the deadline.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M7X2sP2mkps/T9GCRRbui_I/AAAAAAAAAXw/QMaVrDxvDAg/s1600/Americas+2012+06+2.png

El Cruzero To Transform Far East El Paso Desert (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/el-cruzero-to-transform-far-east-el.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QEIKM12F4MY/T08A4aUrDTI/AAAAAAAAAFA/EVhQxNiod7E/s1600/El+Cruzero+2.png


A new 228 acre mixed use development is slated for far east El Paso which will incorporate new Smart Code rules. El Cruzero Town Center will be built at the northeast corner of Montana Ave and Joe Battle (Loop 375), and will be comprised of two mixed-use areas, a Regional Center Development and a Traditional Neighborhood Development.

Components of the project will include multi- and single-family housing, mixed use commercial, parks, open space, and parts of a mass transit system. The developer will also partner with a school district in order to create a school.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PLpkPPwshnM/T07-uD4vL7I/AAAAAAAAAE4/87djMOEqk3o/s1600/El+Cruzero+Map.jpg

Wright & Dalbin Architects has been chosen as the architectural firm for El Cruzero. The firm has previously worked directly with the City of El Paso on the Alamito Apartments located in South El Paso.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vIbZI0dCeig/T08CA8mzN3I/AAAAAAAAAFI/Lcj5yb9CTZk/s1600/Cruzero+B.jpg

Cruzero Development, LLC, entered into a Chapter 380 Economic Development Agreement with the City in April of 2011 which will provide the developer with tax break incentives in order to make the project a reality. According to the city, construction must begin within 24 months of the execution of the Chapter 380 agreement. This puts the deadline for construction to begin in spring of 2013.

ASARCO Ready For Development By 2015 (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/asarco-ready-for-development-in-2015.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-maBSI7IBVz8/T0kfPbTyzrI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/vn71GGWrUAc/s1600/Asarco+Concept.bmp
Conceptualization including stacks that may or may not be saved from demolition.


Roberto Puga, the trustee appointed to oversee the remediation of the Asarco site, stated this week that those interested in saving the smokestacks at Asarco have nine months left to come up with the plan and $14 Million needed to insure and retrofit the historic icons/blights. Puga delayed the demolition of the stacks for one year in order to accommodate the group seeking to save the stacks.

In an El Paso Inc. story, Puga also said that he would like one master developer to purchase all 350 acres, which span both sides of I-10, and that the site would be ready for sale in 2015, a short three years away. A new change in the plan includes topping the site with five feet of clean soil and not the asphalt surface that was in the original plan.

Puga also reinforced that the City has a large say as to the use and design of the land, regardless of who ultimately purchases it. This includes Smart Code zoning and transportation design that can be overlaid on the property prior to sale. Some Smart Code applications have already been approved. The City, with the help of design firm Dover Kohl, envisions a mixed-use development that could include an impact project, such as an arena or amusement park to anchor the property.

Lot of great things happening in El Paso....

Lot of great things happening in El Paso....

Yeah, the city is bursting at the seams so I'm hoping for some verticality by the end of this latest cycle. ;)

Where does City Hall go? (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_8da4b754-c3c5-11e1-82ea-001a4bcf6878.html)


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2142/1676410602_940cbcad13.jpg
the Plaza Hotel

Two former El Paso mayors have very different opinions about City Council’s dramatic decision to move ahead with a minor league baseball deal – a deal that would mean building a new stadium where City Hall now stands.

Former Mayor Joe Wardy loves the baseball proposal, while former Mayor Larry Francis has a world of reservations about it. “They’ve not shown anybody that I know of any numbers on a spreadsheet on what this is going to cost everybody,” Francis said. Wardy’s take: “I’ve always said the devil’s in the details, but I totally support where they’re going with this.”

Meanwhile, current El Paso Mayor John Cook, who missed Tuesday’s council meeting, is uncharacteristically quiet about the deal that could put city employees into one of two historic buildings belonging to Western Refining exec Paul Foster: either the Blue Flame or the Plaza Hotel. Cook said he suggested to Foster that he donate the Plaza building to the city and reported that Foster said he would think about it. Foster could not be reached for comment.

In a November interview with El Paso Inc., Cook expressed strong opposition to giving up the 10-story City Hall to make way for a ballpark or a multi-purpose sports venue. But last week, Cook said simply, “I will defer to the will of the entire council.” It would be hard and maybe impossible to find an occasion when Cook made such a statement on an important issue in his seven years as mayor.

This week, the mayor did express reservations about moving City Hall into a new or existing building that the city does not own, except on a temporary basis and “as long as it’s a sweet heart deal.”

As it happens, Foster is a member of the MountainStar Sports Group that’s trying to bring a Triple-A baseball team to El Paso. According to Cook, Foster has offered the city a temporary home in the Blue Flame Building. “He’s done the asbestos abatement, which he started earlier this year, and he said he is committed to revamping the (heating and cooling) system, which he would have to do for anyone, and upgrading the elevators so he can get the certificate of occupancy,” Cook told El Paso Inc.

One question is whether Foster would do all that to the Blue Flame, a 16-story building that’s been vacant for years, only to have the city move permanently into the Plaza Hotel, where he would likely have to make the same improvements. The Blue Flame stands a stone’s throw from the county courthouse in the midst of an area city leaders call the “government district” and where they have been talking about moving City Hall for a decade.

The Plaza Hotel, on the other hand, is in the heart of the entertainment district across from the declining Camino Real Hotel, whose owners, city leaders say, will only upgrade if there is a new competitor nearby.

Next At Montecillo: Senior Apartments (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_80aff4b4-c3c5-11e1-b796-001a4bcf6878.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i_Na_rsKV70/T0EncWq3UcI/AAAAAAAAAD8/RalZpWpb9-Y/s1600/Retreat+at+Montecillo.bmp


Posted: Sunday, July 1, 2012 6:00 pm | Updated: 6:06 pm, Sun Jul 1, 2012.

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer | 1 comment

The developer of a novel $777-million urban village on the Westside called Montecillo is putting the finishing touches on the site’s first four buildings, which mix urban apartments with retail, and jumping forward to the project’s next phase.

This week, EPT Land Communities begins building an active senior living community called The Retreat at Monticello. Construction will take 18 months, company executives say.

Also this week, the first residents move into the The Venue at Montecillo – smart-growth style apartments designed with young families and urbanites in mind.

The senior community would be located on West Castellano Drive behind The Venue, which is now being finished along North Mesa Street.

It’s all part of the 293-acre Montecillo development that extends from Mesa Street to Interstate 10 and between Castellano and Festival Drives.

The urban village is the first to follow the city’s smart code adopted a few years ago.

2 Foster Buildings In State Of Revival (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_21001713/Downtown: 2-foster-buildings-state-revival)


http://newspapertree.com/system/photo/image/218/tree3JH.jpg
Plaza Hotel at left, Western Refining's Mills Building at right.

By Vic Kolenc \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 07/04/2012 03:06:32 PM MDT

The long-vacant, 19-story Plaza Hotel building is in the process of being gutted inside to make way for future redevelopment of the historic Downtown building.

Meanwhile, the cooling system and elevators are being brought back to life in the 16-floor Blue Flame Building, another large, vacant Downtown building.

The Blue Flame Building has been mentioned as a possible candidate to house City Hall employees. The weekly newspaper El Paso Inc. this week suggested the Plaza Hotel may also be a candidate to replace City Hall.

Both buildings are owned by Western Refining founder Paul Foster, part of a group trying to bring a minor league baseball team to El Paso as part of City Council's plan to build a baseball stadium on the land where City Hall now sits.

"I haven't had any discussions about where City Hall would go," Foster said in an interview last week.

"I know one of the things they (city officials) are looking at is trying to find places for office space to go temporarily," Foster said. "That was probably the biggest motivation for me to try to get that building (Blue Flame) back up to speed so that might be a location they consider as a temporary home."

Foster said he hired an air conditioning contractor to get the air conditioning and air handling systems in the Blue Flame Building working again, and the elevators also are being checked to make sure they work safely, he said.

"It's a perfectly good building with a lot of office space," Foster said.

[...]

Downtown Garage Transforming Into Bank, Office Building (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/07/downtown-garage-transforming-into-bank.html)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DOGaGO0TL0k/T_ZhjWX6MII/AAAAAAAAAdw/FDQLkq6NHWU/s1600/United+Bank+1.png


A long-time parking structure is making a new transformation into a bank and office building at 401 E. Main near the financial sector of downtown El Paso. Steel beams, cranes, and construction workers mark the progress being made at what will become a new location for the United Bank of El Paso del Norte.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-767IlLDhvGU/T_ZhqEIPfUI/AAAAAAAAAd4/GDsBgA19FYM/s1600/United+Bank+2.png
Current parking structure

According to specification details on the architect's website, the first floor will become the bank's downtown location, while the second and third floors will remain parking levels. A fourth and fifth floor will be added and become lease-able office space.

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_21037384/el-paso-economy-grows-at-slow-pace-first)


El Paso economy grows at slow pace in first quarter

By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 07/09/2012 02:22:53 PM MDT

http://www.brianwanchophotography.com/img/s1/v49/p64206962-3.jpg

El Paso's economy grew at a slow pace in the first quarter, but job growth continued to shine, the Brookings Institution's latest MetroMonitor shows.

El Paso's overall economic output grew 0.7 percent in the January-April quarter - slightly better than the average 0.6 percent economic growth rate for the nation's 100 largest metro areas combined.

El Paso jobs grew 1.1 percent in the first quarter, compared to an average 0.5 percent average growth rate for the nation's 100 largest metros combined.

"Employment growth has been steady in El Paso," said Sid Kulkarni, a Brookings' research assistant and co-author of the MetroMonitor.

The strongest job growth in the first quarter and in the last four quarters were: Real estate services; trade, transportation and utilities; finance and insurance services; health-care services; and leisure and hospitality (hotels and restaurants).

El Paso had a less severe decline in employment during the recession than many other metro areas, and steady employment growth since the recession ended, Kulkarni said. El Paso's employment hit its recessionary low point at the end of 2007, Brookings reported.

El Paso's employment growth since the recession ended ranks 12th among the nation's 100 largest metro areas. El Paso's overall recovery since the recession ranks 29th among the large metro areas, Brookings reported.

[...]

Dunkin Donuts Relaunches: 8 More El Paso Las Cruces Stores Planned (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_21055937/8-more-el-paso-las-cruces-stores-planned)

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2012/0711/20120711__0712-f1-dunkin~1_300.jpg


Northeast El Paso has a brand-new, rebuilt Dunkin' Donuts store. It's just the first step in a Utah restaurant management company's grand plan to reintroduce the brand to the Borderland.

Sizzling Platter, a Salt Lake City-based company, held its grand reopening Wednesday for its Dunkin' Donuts store at 9114 Dyer.

The company bought this store, which had been closed by its previous owner in September 2011, and the store at 1105 Yarbrough in mid-January.

It also entered into an agreement with Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin' Brands Inc., the parent company for Dunkin' Donuts, to open up to eight more stores in the El Paso-Las Cruces market in the next five years.

Two additional stores are already under construction in El Paso -- at Redd and Resler on the West Side and George Dieter and Rojas on the East Side -- said Pat Wagner, a partner with Sizzling Platter and the company's Dunkin' Donuts brand manager. They are expected to open this fall, Wagner added.

A store in Las Cruces is expected to open in spring 2013, Wagner said.


Amazingly the chain has few stores west of the Mississippi. Expect many more throughout Texas and beyond!

Cielo Vista, Sunland Park Malls Announce Store Openings, Renovations (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_21072572/cielo-vista-sunland-name-changes?source=rss_viewed)

http://www.simon.com/assets/mall/213/Property_Photo/med_72x72DPI_15_Ceilo%20Vista120.jpg
Cielo Vista Mall


By Paula Monarez Diaz \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 07/14/2012 10:17:15 AM MDT

New stores are opening and some are being renovated at Cielo Vista and Sunland Park malls.

They include Finish Line, Forever 21, AT&T, Shiekh Shoes, Teaze, Modas Carolina, Kor Hair and Gratiae.

"We're excited to offer a number of new retailers and remodeled stores to the community and our visitors," said Cindy Foght, area director of marketing and business development. "These new additions will enhance the vibrant shopping environment found at Cielo Vista Mall and Sunland Park Mall."

Here's what's new:

*Shiekh Shoes will open later this month. The store carries all types of footwear, from women's high heels and kids' sneakers to men's boots. It will also carry men's apparel and women's handbags and a wide array of men's basketball shoes, men's running shoes, men's training shoes and skate shoes. The 2,492-square-foot store will be in Cielo Vista Mall in the Lower Level, Center Court across from Michael Kors.

*Forever 21 will be reopened in August. The clothing store features trendy designs and the accessories. The 20,738-square-foot store is on the upper level of Cielo Vista Mall by Dillard's West.

*Finish Line has just reopened after its remodeling. The athletic retailer offers brand-name footwear, apparel and accessories. The 3,414-square-foot store is on the lower level at Cielo Vista Mall across from Victoria's Secret opened its 1,275-square-foot store recently on the upper level of Cielo Vista Mall near Men's Dillard's West.

*AT&T opened its 1,275-square-foot store recently on the upper level of Cielo Vista Mall near Men's Dillard's West. It offers a broad array of phones including BlackBerry, iPhone and Android.

*Teaze opened its doors in June in Sunland Park Mall. The 750-square-foot store carries a sweetly flavored tea beverage invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. It is on the upper level of the mall in the food court.

*Modas Carolina, which offers evening wear including wedding gowns and prom dresses for women young and old, has opened. The store is on the upper level, close to Dillard's North entrance in Sunland Park Mall. It has 1,829 square feet.

*Kor Hair, which offers hairstyling items and accessories, has opened in Sunland Park Mall. The 49-square-foot store is across from American Eagle and Hollywood Nail.

*Gratiae has also opened in Sunland Park Mall. It carries spa treatment items for skin, body and bath. The 49-square-foot store is on the lower level across from Express Store.

[...]

El Paso Looks To Oklahoma City (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_9167e842-cec5-11e1-942b-001a4bcf6878.html)

http://okcreview.com/blog/http://bigthinkdev.com/okcreview/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/OKC-2012-skyline.jpg
OKC's $2 billion in publicly financed improvements
have resulted in over $5 billion in investments.


In the early 1990s, Oklahoma City was on its back, crippled by the oil bust, a city that people were fleeing because of high unemployment, little opportunity and failing schools. Today it is a very different place, attracting billions in private investment, tourists and city leaders from around the country, including El Paso, who flock there to see what they’ve done – many with an eye to following their example.

But it hasn’t been cheap. The public investment, much of it yet unspent but planned, is about $2 billion. The reward has been close to $5 billion in private investment. “What we’ve really done is realize that the key to economic development is creating a place where people want to live,” Mick Cornett, Oklahoma City’s mayor since 2004, told El Paso Inc. “To do that, you have to do everything. It’s not just sports or the arts or affordable housing and no traffic congestion; it’s all of those things. You’ve got to do it all, and having a sports component is very important.”

El Paso city planners and City Council members know the Oklahoma City story. But El Paso voters don’t, and they’ve always been wary of City Hall adventures that mean higher taxes. They’re just beginning to weigh the decisions they’ll be asked to make at the polls this fall: funding for a new baseball stadium Downtown and a $468 million menu of bond projects, among others.

To the city’s political and business leaders, the Nov. 6 election offers El Paso the opportunity to dramatically change its future the way San Antonio, Albuquerque and Phoenix did years ago – with enviable results. But others feel they’re being asked to buy an expensive ticket to step into the unknown: a darkened Halloween house filled with fateful turns and scary choices, higher taxes and lots of changes.

[...]

UTEP Campus Enhancement Plans Unveiled (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/07/utep-unveils-campus-transformation.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t6616wr-q0Y/UA4Yzp-j-HI/AAAAAAAAAiU/IeFTWSP_pIs/s1600/Campus+0.png
Western Gateway

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hsPYSl0RVhg/UA4ZDcLjGUI/AAAAAAAAAic/2CHxRea0PpI/s1600/Campus+1.png
Streetscape along Hawthorne

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zWwIkjPC-6Y/UA4YTXrKSzI/AAAAAAAAAiM/XlC3Ad0n2_w/s1600/Campus+3.png
A new Centennial Plaza will be created

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ic_nxZ1OX0s/UA4ZNxvYVGI/AAAAAAAAAik/KojRZyHTR9c/s1600/Campus+2.png
Miner Alley

Project Update: Venue At Montecillo (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/07/venue-at-montecillo-teases-with-new-pics.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FbPD6eTNAbo/UBWUkfYJwCI/AAAAAAAAAjs/7MgEaDbosII/s1600/Venue+New+2.png

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-duLKNzZdNxA/UBWRjHYT5bI/AAAAAAAAAi4/NLcKSPyXl2U/s1600/Venue+New+1.png


The Venue at Montecillo is the first phase of a planned 288-acre smart code development which will eventually be home to 2,500 apartments and almost 500 homes.

The next phase of the project includes a retail/restaurant incubator called T.I.M.E. which will help entrepreneurs develop new ventures and will be open to the public, and a senior-retirement apartment community called the Retreat at Montecillo.

El Paso faces Time Crunch on Moving City Hall (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21233018/ep-faces-time-crunch-triple-deadlines)

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/elpasoinc.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/1b/31b8d8ea-bbe5-11e1-af8d-0019bb30f31a/4fe38d953a97e.image.jpg


With a Triple-A baseball team coming to El Paso in 2014, the city is now crunched for time to find a new home for its employees and to build a $50 million ballpark to house the team.

The process could take a major step forward Tuesday, when the City Council will consider buying two Downtown buildings to begin relocating city staff.

A third property, the El Paso Times building at 300 N. Campbell St., will be discussed in executive session. "We've looked at several options in terms of buildings we can lease or purchase, and whether we can break up city employees into different buildings," Deputy City Manager Bill Studer said. "We will present the options, and council will have to decide what we do next."

The ballpark will be built where City Hall and the Insights Science Center building now stand. The council voted in June to demolish the buildings by February so that construction on the ballpark can begin. The city has to have a baseball stadium built by April 2014, when the first season of the yet-to-be-named El Paso team will begin play.

Tuesday, the council will consider purchasing the 62,400-square-foot Luther Building at 218 N. Campbell St. for about $17.4 million to relocate the Information Technology Department. The building, owned by Luther Acquisition Limited Partnership, will have to be brought up to code and undergo extensive renovations and remodeling before the city closes on the purchase, according to the agenda.

The second

building the council will consider buying is at 801 Texas St. and is owned by Harl E. Dixon. The 70,000-square-foot building will be bought for $2.3 million and will house the City Development Department, where the public frequently goes for things such as building permits. Renovations are expected to cost about $10 million, city documents show.

Both projects, which total about $30 million including the renovations, will be placed under the city's Capital Improvement Program and will be paid for with certificate of obligation bonds. The bonds don't require voter approval but are repaid with taxpayer dollars.

[...]

Aldea Renderings Updated (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/aldea-images-updated-with-more-detail.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eLeX2X9UKjk/UBsTOCYggII/AAAAAAAAAkU/t2OnBJAgwTI/s1600/Aldea+Newer+5.png


Conceptual images of the Town Center section of the upcoming Aldea smart code development that were discovered in June have been updated with more detail, helping to create a more realistic picture of what the project may eventually look like. Most structures, landscapes, and streetscapes have been colored in, and previously blank spaces have been filled in with new details.

The layout of the Town Center area has not changed, with a fashion retail anchor, a theater, and retail liners fronting the development's tree-lined Rambla. Housing still sits to the east with a smart-code designed Walmart accessible by a large pedestrian walkway/staircase to the west.



http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u7AXnxVYyuM/UBsU39PNCbI/AAAAAAAAAkc/u3O-dMWv7U8/s1600/Aldea+Newer+1.png

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M6WCpimKDO0/UBsVEqnWsuI/AAAAAAAAAkk/Ub5nqe9hBQ4/s1600/Aldea+Newer+2.png

http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/aldea-images-updated-with-more-detail.html

"Wave Of Future" Public Housing Project Set For Nov. Start In Far East ELP (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_21233024/public-housing-project-set-nov)

http://www.wrightdalbin.com/p7abstractions/img/slideshow/eastside_crossing/eastside_crossing_site_web.jpg
wrightdalbin


A 188-unit, $20 million apartment and town house project billed as the "wave of the future" for public housing by El Paso Housing Authority officials is expected to begin construction this year on the far East Side.

What makes the project different is that for the first time in El Paso, a housing project will mix public housing with regular, market-rate apartments.

The Housing Authority of El Paso and private El Paso developer Hunt Companies plan to begin construction of Eastside Crossings in November on 14.5 acres at Zaragoza and Joe Battle.

It's expected to be completed late next year or early 2014.

The complex will be near JCPenney, Home Depot and a large retail center anchored by a Super Target.

"This is the model that is now being used across the United States to construct new affordable housing that does not concentrate low-income populations in a specific area," Gerald Cichon, chief executive officer of the Housing Authority of El Paso, said in a written statement. "This model seamlessly blends various populations into the community instead of segregated pockets of poverty."

These types of mixed-income projects have been a success elsewhere, and makes financial sense because they do not rely on federal funding only, he said.

"We plan on engaging in more projects of this nature in the future," Cichon said.

Sun Metro Far East Side Transit and Fire Station

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mR47rO_YOqQ/0.jpg

Foundation Surgical Hospital of El Paso Opens (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/border_business/article_1531083a-ddbb-11e1-93e4-0019bb30f31a.html)

http://www.physiciansmedcenter.com/_img_css/foundation_header.jpg

El Paso City Council votes in favor of buying El Paso Times, Texas Avenue buildings (http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_21255633)


By Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 08/07/2012 02:54:16 PM MDT
Reporter Cindy Ramirez

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3367517944_0e72ff33de.jpg
The El Paso Times Bldg.

City Council today voted to allow the city manager to pursue buying two Downtown buildings - the El Paso Times and the building on Texas Avenue - to relocate city operations and make way for the planned ballpark where City Hall sits.

City Reps. Eddie Holguin and Carl Robinson voted against the purchase of both buildings, while Rep. Emma Acosta voted against buying the building on Texas Avenue.

The two buildings could cost more than $22 million, officials said, though costs will still be negotiated. The city will also look into buying the El Paso Times parking lot across the street from the building, which may add to the cost.

Officials with the city's contracted real estate companies, TVO North America and RJL Real Estate Construction, today made a presentation with recommendations on where to relocate city operations.

The real estate companies looked at 15 buildings, many of which would not be ready in time for the city to begin moving into by February. "I think we are making a big mistake," City Rep. Carl Robinson said earlier in the meeting. "The actions we took on June 26 and the actions we are taking today has done irreparable damage to public trust."

Moving City Hall is necessary to make room for a $50 million baseball park, which the city in June committed to build if a group of private investors secured a Triple-A baseball team for the city. MountainStar Sports Group last week received a key approval to buy a team from Minor League Baseball's Pacific Coast League, presumably the Tucson Padres.
The city has to have a baseball stadium built by April 2014, when the first season of the yet-to-be-named El Paso team will begin play.

[...]


Here are the two buildings the city council wants to buy:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gZkEODZ1I0I/UCKve3vNklI/AAAAAAAAAo8/MjpkSljHQC8/s1600/City+Hall+1.bmp
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/council-votes-to-purchase-buildings-for.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uPa3nSfRK8w/UCKy4wb6JlI/AAAAAAAAAps/PR-Ic79oh7k/s1600/City+Hall+3.png
801 Texas Ave.

Stae-Of-The-Art Fort Bliss Aquatics Center Will Contain 3 pools (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_21274752/state-art-fort-bliss-aquatics-center-will-contain)

.

Texas Tech Announces $11 Million New Nursing School (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21279170/texas-tech-announce-new-11m-nursing-school-today?source=rss_viewed)

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/img/photos/2012/08/09/74/6c/Tech_building.jpg

A peek at the new $1 billion William Beaumont Army Medical Center:

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz21/esb1250/wbamc.png
http://www.hdrinc.com/portfolio/william-beaumont-army-medical-center-wbamc-at-fort-bliss

http://www.hdrinc.com/sites/all/files/content/projects/images/4916-william-beaumont-army-medical-center-wbamc-at-fort-bliss-5200.jpg
http://www.hdrinc.com/portfolio/william-beaumont-army-medical-center-wbamc-at-fort-bliss

New military medical facilities are becoming rather pricey these days. :shocked:

New military medical facilities are becoming rather pricey these days. :shocked:

Yeah the new VA Hospitals in Orlando and Las Vegas cost more than $650 million each. But that's the going rate for new hospitals these days...

City Council Approves Bond, Stadium Ballot Propositions (http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_21310622/el-paso-city-council-approves-bond-stadium-propositions)

There are groups mobilizing to fight the bond over the city's recent pas-de-deux with local developers over AAA baseball...

More Chains Coming To East El Paso, Outlet Shoppes (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/retail-update-menchies-chipotle-expand.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J640c15qF3o/UCqj8hD8R0I/AAAAAAAAAtc/4iscoMPowEw/s1600/Rojas+3.jpg


The Rojas/George Dieter intersection in East El Paso will soon see several new restaurants including Menchie's Frozen Yogurt and Chipotle Mexican Grill when a new 35,000 square foot shopping center is completed later this year, built by River Oaks Properties.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gnht-czaw6s/UCqjaX8wGhI/AAAAAAAAAtU/BY4bW4kGbOQ/s1600/Rojas+1.png

Rojas Commons is currently under construction across the street from Las Palmas Marketplace, an extremely popular shopping/dining area just off of Interstate 10 and Zaragoza Road. Other announced tenants include two restaurants new to El Paso, Jason's Deli (http://www.jasonsdeli.com/)and Mama Fu's Asian House (http://www.mamafus.com/). Dunkin' Donuts will also have a location at the center.

Menchie's is popular on El Paso's west side with a location on Sunland Park Drive, while Chipotle's only location is on Mesa Street near UTEP. Both should receive a strong response from Eastsiders in this area popular for food joints.

Outlet Shoppes

Expansion is also underway at the Outlet Shoppes at El Paso in the city's northwest. The 27,000 square foot addition on the center's southeast side is also being built by River Oaks and will be known as The Shops at the Outlet Mall. Starbuck's and Pizza Hut will be the first tenants to open at the addition. Construction is scheduled for completion in September.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GqD2ezhe4o8/UCqlQNJj4lI/AAAAAAAAAts/4aR60MQzOzQ/s1600/Rojas+5.bmp

El Paso has some great projects in the works! Good for y'all!

Verde Realty Advising Shareholders To Accept Buyout Offer (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_2b3d7a48-e7e1-11e1-bc13-001a4bcf6878.html)



Verde Realty, the private real estate investment trust formed in El Paso by Bill Sanders and Ron Blankenship, is recommending that shareholders take a buyout offer at about half or less than the original share price.

In a story in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, the paper said the company was recommending that shareholders accept an offer of $12.85 per share from a group that includes Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Hillwood Development Co.

The story said some investors are unhappy with the buyout, which is structured as a merger, and have retained counsel to represent them. The Journal also reported that when the company was raising nearly $800 million between 2003 and 2007, “shares were priced between $25 and $35 a share.”

The Journal said Verde was formed to develop and buy properties on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, but was hammered by the economic downturn and the violence in Mexico.


The once ambitious group had envisioned developing a city of up to 400,000 at nearby Santa Teresa NM. Those plans were stymied by the 2008 crash and subsequent lending drought. Also momentum for new plants across the border slowed over Chinese competition and the cartel violence. Brookfield has the deep financial resources to move these projects forward should they desire. stay tuned...

14 screen Cinemark Theater going up in Far East El Paso (http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_21466866/movie-update-cinemark-build-14-screen-theater-far)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qifZOkAjByI/UEbTReYH-pI/AAAAAAAAA4Y/yAyP3T_3wek/s1600/NextGen+2.jpg
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/14-screen-multiplex-planned-for-far.html

Large-Scale Redevelopment Coming To Downtown El paso (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/times-more-large-scale-redevelopment.html)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wjqe-T_XgFw/UDrIYXZYETI/AAAAAAAAAyk/K76hGVA41LE/s1600/Gaddy+2.bmp


Several properties located near San Jacinto Plaza are in store for redevelopment and could mean more retail, office, and residential space for the city's downtown. That's according to a story posted at the El Paso Times website, which interviews the head of an investment group purchasing two Downtown landmarks.

Lane Gaddy and a group of investors have already purchased the seven story Martin Building at the corner of Stanton Street and Mills Avenue and are looking to buy another building from River Oaks Properties directly across Mills Avenue from San Jacinto Plaza. The Roberts-Banner Building is a five story historic edifice that the City was interested in a few months back and located one block from the newly renovated Mills Building owned by Paul Foster. The group would also like to buy the Tejas Cafe Building less than one block away at 204-210 Mills Avenue.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u5OY3jZftmE/UDrIhpcs7kI/AAAAAAAAAys/qTKc1YyTKSc/s1600/Gaddy+1.bmp
Borderplex Properties

Another player in Downtown property redevelopment, Borderplex Community Trust (BCT), has plans for a strip of largely vacant buildings along Mesa Street from Mills Avenue to Texas Avenue. BCT would like to demolish the buildings in hopes of erecting a brand new mixed-use project at the site but has received opposition due to one of the building's historic significance. The building at 230 N. Mesa Street was designed by Henry Trost, one of the city's most significant historic figures who designed many historically-significant buildings in El Paso.

[...]

New Downtown ballpark visualized:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lnYVTpmYc6A/UEA0ILPHGdI/AAAAAAAAA2o/8rSwD4Gw08k/s1600/QOL+3.jpg
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/city-finalizes-quality-of-life-ballot.html

Tight fit! ;)

And while we're at it,

Nuevo estadio de beisbol CD Juarez. "Estadio Tricentenario":

http://deportejuarez.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/beisbol-estadio.jpg


El estadio se llamará Estadio Tricentenario y tendrá cupo para aproximadamente 13,500 aficionados. En comparación, el estadio Cohen de El Paso tiene cupo para unos 10,000.

El proyecto tendrá un costo de 134.7 millones de pesos y tendrá tiendas de recuerdos, refresquerías y un moderno tablero de puntuación.

Contará con 46,723 metros cuadrados de construcción y 19 niveles de asientos. El estacionamiénto tendrá una superficie de 92,110 metros cuadrados.

13,500 capacity, largest in Chih. Construction is well underway:

http://noticiasenlinea.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Avances-en-el-Estadio-de-Beisbol4.jpg
http://noticiasenlinea.com/

Smart Code Master Plan Coming To Airport Area (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/smart-code-master-plan-coming-to.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gdItasSfsSg/UFKy0hzkKqI/AAAAAAAAA7s/gKHhM7Ur5D8/s1600/Airport+4.png

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FzWH8vPxDqs/UFKy6ci37nI/AAAAAAAAA8E/tpQEhkwOrTg/s1600/Airport+7.png


An industrial area southwest of the El Paso International Airport and commercial areas along Montana Avenue could soon be rezoned to Smart Code, according to an zoning application on the City Plan Commission agenda. The Southern Industrial Park Master Plan envisions pedestrian friendly streets with retailers and restaurants lining the sidewalks, architecturally interesting courtyard hotels with hidden parking, and a 450,000 square foot business conference center, all in a 300+ acre area owned by the airport.

The plan, developed by Placemakers LLC, focuses on two "pedestrian sheds" that lie to the south of the main international airport. The first area is bounded by Airway Boulevard to the east and north, Airport Boulevard to the west, and Montana Avenue to the south. This area would see the densest development.

Kern, UTEP Areas May See Next Smart Code Initiative (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/kern-utep-areas-may-see-next-smart-code.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tbgNxOfLuOU/UEv1cJYlc9I/AAAAAAAAA5U/h4eMd6-c1Bk/s1600/Glory+1.bmp


The City will hold a community meeting on Saturday, September 22, 2012 to answer residents' questions concerning the Glory Road SmartCode initiative, a plan to bring Smart Code zoning to areas around the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). This includes the historic Kern neighborhood, the Cincinnati district, Mesa Street north to Sun Bowl Drive, and the Mesa/Oregon/Stanton corridor south to I-10 at the norther edge of Downtown.

A total of 563 acres are included in the effort and will include multiple Smart Code transects, which are zones that define density and building guidelines. 110 of those acres are coded as T5, which is the second-highest density in Smart Code, and targets areas around Mesa Street and the Glory Road Transit Station, and several blocks nearest Downtown.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pALJIwD6rRc/UEv1nIpnkII/AAAAAAAAA5k/ez7-j8WiYZs/s1600/Glory+3.bmp

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7BTM3fTyKw/UEv1iEQf_oI/AAAAAAAAA5c/FWaE9_iKeuE/s1600/Glory+2.bmp

City will restore old streetcars: http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/city-opts-for-restored-streetcars.html

http://borderzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/trolley-car.jpg
http://borderzine.com/2012/05/posters-brought-to-life-the-idea-of-a-cross-border-trolley-line/


City Council has voted to restore El Paso's old streetcars instead of purchasing brand new replica streetcars for the upcoming trolley project that will run from Downtown to UTEP and back. The City also decided at the September 11, 2012 Council meeting to shorten the northern limit to Glory Road and nix the option to run the line further north to the Mesita Elementary School area.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qf2yaYda5I4/T_9c1U2i9gI/AAAAAAAAAfs/xUWmsXbcynw/s1600/Streetcar+2.bmp

New Building To Rise From Ashes Of Historic Mesa St Building That Burned (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/mesa-building-to-rise-from-ashes.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yhHym0hZJD8/UFVetVP9z5I/AAAAAAAAA98/PTHXsRznudY/s1600/Mesa+Bldg+3.bmp.jpg

The building that burned:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WzLBdlcbJ9k/UFVes0s76oI/AAAAAAAAA90/IzRVA3sDoDM/s1600/Mesa+Bldg+1.bmp

I'm glad El Paso restoring it's old streetcar system, and with El Paso picking up steam with all these projects shouldn't be to long until we hear a skyscraper announcement. It may be the next Texas city to drastically change it's skyline.

Any projected time frame for the streetcar project?

Steve

Any projected time frame for the streetcar project?

Steve

The city has approved a study critical to unlocking TXDOT funding so I'm assuming that when the study is complete and all the bids are let, work could begin within 2 years. Since the city is embarking on a complete transformation under the Smart Code, that phase will be the first of many. :)

United Bank Making Good progress (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/progress-photos-united-bank-fountains.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JCqXnKBVZaA/UGEmKL4sExI/AAAAAAAABEU/2_N420CPIFU/s1600/DSCN2964-001.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ck-5AX9bssM/UGEpxoghwjI/AAAAAAAABFI/2_eiqGs3Sd8/s1600/UB+2.PNG

Fountains at Farah going gangbusters:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h-3RWP58jYA/UGEqozi5Z4I/AAAAAAAABFQ/7vefIe2Y4Fw/s1600/DSCN2978-001.jpg
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/progress-photos-united-bank-fountains.html

Here we go...

El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21664740/city-venue-could-attract-more-shows-events-ep?source=rss_viewed)


City: $180M arena could attract more shows, events to El Paso

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4091/5013532353_50e07b65ef_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretsquirrel5468/5013532353/)
Abraham Chavez Theater (http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretsquirrel5468/5013532353/) by Secret5468 (http://www.flickr.com/people/secretsquirrel5468/), on Flickr
Abraham Chavez Theater foreground. A new arena would replace the c.1971 theater abutting the Convention Center.

One of the most contentious projects on the city's November bond referendum also carries one of the biggest price tags -- an $180 million arena dubbed a "multipurpose performing arts and entertainment center" by the city.

"The multipurpose event center will be able to host events like concerts, family shows, ice events, religious gatherings, graduations, civic events, boxing, mixed martial arts, motorsports, basketball and other sporting tournaments," Deputy City Manager Bill Studer said.

He added that the specific location, size, amenities and parking plans of the arena would be determined in the planning and design phase if the voters approve the venue in November as part of the $473 million bond referendum.

If approved, the arena would complement the Judson Williams Convention Center, could replace the aging Abraham Chavez Theater and end years of failed attempts to bring an arena to the city. It would also be part of the city's larger plan to create a Sports Entertainment District, which would include the recently approved $50 million Triple-A ballpark.

[...]


How stupid does it get? No way is El Paso ever going to get its $180 million (watch as that number swells once the bonds are approved) back from all the supposed events that will be lured to such an arena. Not to mention the loss of the iconic modernist Abraham Chavez Theater. No major league tennant, too few major events to ever pay back the bonds and the loss of yet another El Paso landmark for the sake of well-placed sports enthusiaists who lean upon the public weal for their every delusional impulse. The city has learned nothing from 30 years of miserable arena failures nationwide and overindebted communities soaked by boosters.

/end rant

I totally agree.

Does it even need to be an expensive facility downtown or could the city build a smaller multipurpose indoor arena with ice rink equipment out in the burbs and leave the theatre? You see those kinds of things in the midwest.

I totally agree.

Does it even need to be an expensive facility downtown or could the city build a smaller multipurpose indoor arena with ice rink equipment out in the burbs and leave the theatre? You see those kinds of things in the midwest.

The city has been battling the county for years over who would build a new arena. The county has had a proposal to build a 20,000 seat arena for rodeo and other events to replace the aging County Coliseum (where an ice rink hosted the El Paso Buzzards for several years). The city insists on building everything downtown but the only available land is under existing city facilities. If the quality of life bond measures pass, the city will have the money to build what will likely be a 10,000 or 12,000 seat arena. Too small to ever attract a pro sports franchise and too costly to ever break even on the kind of crap these smaller venues draw. A similar proposal in Albuquerque was wisely shot down 4 years ago.

New Airport Garage planned (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-airport-rental-car-garage-to.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bTBsFz-9NvM/UG9GsN9VvUI/AAAAAAAABTs/hYR6zT46jpw/s1600/CONRAC+2.bmp


The City is moving forward with plans to create a three level parking structure at the airport which will be used by rental car companies for pick up and return of automobiles used by travelers. The Consolidated Rental Car Facility (ConRAC) will be located immediately to the west of El Paso International Airport's main terminal, steps away from the baggage claim area.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GGcmnSCphYY/UG9GoAQMplI/AAAAAAAABTk/gl36sHTS04I/s1600/CONRAC+1.bmp
Concept design of the structure in the Southern Industrial Park Master Plan.

Included in the structure will be Ready and Return areas, customer kiosks, fueling and car wash areas, a light maintenance facility, and vehicle storage for use by the rental companies. It will include 650-700 parking stalls and be designed using Smart Growth and Congress for New Urbanism principles, including a focus on pedestrian accessibility. The final structure will conform with the newly released Southern Industrial Park Master Plan SmartCode guidelines.

The City will choose an architect for the project at its October 9, 2012, meeting. According to the agenda item, the City is poised to award the $2.7 million contract to the firm of Demattei Wong Architecture, Inc. of California. Demattei Wong will develop schematic and final construction designs as well as oversee the eventual $30 million construction project, which will be paid from airport revenues. Demattei Wong has constructed multiple ConRAC facilities around the United States.

New Americas Interchange Opens January (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/americas-interchange-will-open-in-three.html)

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Fountains At Farah Update: (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/fountains-website-adds-new-aerial-photos.html)

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Arena Plans Worry Culture Buffs (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_64f83370-1605-11e2-a884-001a4bcf6878.html)

Replacing Abraham Chavez Theater not a sure thing

http://www.vanityfair.com/dam/online/culture/MG_3433.jpg


Posted: Sunday, October 14, 2012 6:00 pm | Updated: 10:33 am, Sun Oct 14, 2012.
By David Crowder | 0 comments


Classical musicians are picky about sound. It is, after all, what their lives are all about.

That’s why members of El Paso’s classical music community are concerned about the fate of the Abraham Chavez Theatre as the Nov. 6 bond election approaches. At the bottom of the very long ballot, El Paso voters will find two bond propositions, one of which calls for a “multi-purpose performing arts and entertainment” facility. That’s an arena estimated to cost $180 million and seat some 20,000 people – big enough for major concerts, minor league basketball, hockey or even arena football.

The $228-million proposition includes other facilities, but if it passes, the biggest question will be where to build a new arena. Though the question is officially undecided, the city’s aging 2,500-seat Chavez Theatre is at the top of the list of likely sites. “There’s been no decision by City Council on the location of the arena,” city Rep. Susie Byrd said. “We have to wait and see if it’s funded, but we have identified four sites Downtown that would be suitable for arenas. “One of them is the Chavez site. My understanding is the staff recommendation might be to locate it there, but it hasn’t been publicly vetted or gone through any of the due diligence we would do before deciding.”

To some in the city’s classical music community, demolishing the Chavez for the arena would leave El Paso without a fine arts performance center. Built in the 1970s, the theater was named after the longtime conductor of the El Paso Symphony. There is a rumor that, with City Hall coming down for the stadium, city leaders have already decided not to start a new controversy by demolishing the Chavez Theatre without going to voters for permission. Mayor John Cook said he’s heard no such thing, but said he did tell city manager Joyce Wilson that “we’re not running a demolition derby around here.”

If and when the question about what to do about the Chavez arises, he said, “We may ask voters if they want to spend the $20 million to fix it up” before any other decision is made.

[...]

Glimpse Of Ballpark plans Included In Council Agenda (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/glimpse-of-ballpark-plans-included-in.html)

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An agenda item in the upcoming October 23, 2012, City Council meeting shows a portion of preliminary plans for the future baseball stadium in downtown El Paso. The City is developing a contract with Union Pacific Railroad to study and/or approve encroachment over the depressed train tracks that are adjacent to the ballpark site.

According to the draft plans, a pedestrian deck would cross over the tracks in the eastern area of the ballpark, adjacent to Santa Fe Street. Additionally, a portion of the planned upper deck suite and press box area would overhang the railroad tracks by about 50 feet or more.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nbK1UlEtI90/UHniyrrJtkI/AAAAAAAABYU/VOErd0XCwrg/s1600/Baseball+New+1.jpg
Concept image of ballpark. Grandstand tower can be seen on the left.

The plans, which only show the southern portion of the stadium area, also show that Durango Street would be cut in half along the western edge. On the eastern side, plans for a grandstand tower seem to also be included, reinforcing the tower seen in the concept image released by Populous, the architecture firm in charge of designing the stadium.

Fox Plaza Plans Come Into Focus (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/fox-plaza-diversifies-adds-medical.html)

South Central shopping center to see big changes

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Fox Plaza, one of south-central El Paso's largest shopping centers, will soon add a new medical office building to the popular retail site located at the intersection of Paisano Drive and Alameda Avenue. An 11,400 square foot building will be constructed just outside of the southeast corner of the current center boundary and will be dedicated to tenants who provide medical services.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZfboYkACLPg/UH9tFtYwgiI/AAAAAAAABbw/pDc-XSJDpQk/s1600/Fox+Plaza+1.png

The move to include a more diverse mix of uses at the center is intended to loosely mirror the vision that Plan El Paso has for Fox Plaza. That's according to the center's property manager, Jeannette Negrete, who adds, "It's part of a transformation into a lifestyle center, offering expanded services." The idea to add medical services was also influenced by the expansion of the nearby Medical Center of the Americas campus, which includes University Medical Center and the Texas Tech School of Medicine.

Seems awfully crowded for a minor league park.

Mayor John Cook Wants City To Protect Abraham Chavez Theater (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21831158/cook-wants-city-protect-abraham-chavez-theatre?source=rss_viewed)

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4091/5013532353_50e07b65ef_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretsquirrel5468/5013532353/)
Abraham Chavez Theater (http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretsquirrel5468/5013532353/) by Secret5468 (http://www.flickr.com/people/secretsquirrel5468/), on Flickr


By Aileen B. Flores \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 10/23/2012 12:00:00 AM MDT

El Paso Mayor John Cook is seeking the support of the City Council to preserve the Abraham Chavez Theatre in Downtown. Council members are expected to vote today on a resolution to preserve and restore the aging theater.

"I started hearing rumors and people asking the questions whether we are going to demolish the Abraham Chavez Theatre in order to build a multipurpose center," Cook said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. "I can only express my opinion to people," he said. "I would be opposed to the demolition of the Abraham Chavez and will be in favor of its restoration and preservation."

Although a recent study recommends the demolition of the Abraham Chavez Theatre, Cook said the theater is an important part of El Paso history and its arts. The theater was built in the 1970s and it was named after Maestro Abraham Chavez, former conductor of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and longtime UTEP professor.

The Downtown Sports Facilities Study released by the city in June, proposes a larger sports entertainment district in the redevelopment of the Downtown area. Built close to the existing Union Plaza Entertainment District and the Cultural District, the sports district could include the Triple-A minor league baseball stadium that will be built where City Hall sits now, the $180 million multipurpose sports and entertainment center that will go before voters in November, and an outdoor arena to house a Major League Soccer team in the future.

One of the study's recommendations was to demolish the Abraham Chavez Theatre to make room for the indoor entertainment center next to the existing convention center. Cook agrees with the construction of a new multipurpose center and bringing baseball and soccer to El Paso, but said "there are other places where we can put those things other than where the Abraham Chavez Theatre is."

City Rep. Cortney Niland, who represents Downtown El Paso, said there are no plans to demolish the theater. "There are some rumors in the community that are not accurate, so we are going to try to clarify that," she said.


Good that Mayor Cook has some sense. Why the city and the county can't get together and build a $300-400 million arena worthy of a city of 670,000 at a better location (hello? UP rail yards?) is beyond me.

I-10 Toll Lanes Could Stretch To NM Border (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-10-toll-lanes-may-stretch-to-nm-border.html)

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The Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (CRRMA) is studying plans to construct managed toll lanes on Interstate 10 in west El Paso, and a Request for Financial Assistance has revealed that the project's northern boundary will stretch to the New Mexico state line.

The CRRMA is looking to construct the project in two phases, with the first phase stretching along I-10 from Paisano Drive/Sunland Park on the west side northward to Transmountain Road/Loop 375. The southern terminus will intersect with the future Border Highway West extension. Phase two's limit would begin at Transmountain Road and continue northward to the Texas/New Mexico border.

This project will add an inside managed toll lane in each direction on Interstate 10 and would be part of the TxTag electronic tolling system. If implemented, this would create a continuous toll network that would stretch from the New Mexico state line southward to El Paso's downtown and curve around the southern and western boundaries of the city. Tolled lanes would not replace any existing free lanes on I-10 or Loop 375.

El Paso shopping center construction booming; growth to continue through 2013 (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21928848/centers-attention?source=rss_viewed)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uSBh9Zpqf6A/UHrpbV6-SwI/AAAAAAAABZg/9y1xGRSNCiY/s1600/TFAF+N1.jpg
Fountains at Farah http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/10/fountains-website-adds-new-aerial-photos.html


El Paso is in the midst of a shopping center construction boom after several years of muted activity.

Developers have plans to add 1.2 million square feet of retail space in El Paso this year and next year in projects already underway or in the planning stages.

That adds up to the amount of retail space inside Cielo Vista Mall -- El Paso's largest shopping center.

More than half the future space comes from the $70 million, 600,000 square-foot The Fountains at Farah center now going up at Interstate

The center, developed by Western Refining founder Paul Foster and Dallas retail center developer Centergy Retail, is projected to open late next year. It will have 60-80 stores and restaurants.

The other 582,000-plus square feet of retail space will come from several strip shopping centers being built mostly by River Oaks Properties and Mimco Inc., El Paso's main strip center developers.

"For awhile, everyone slowed down; banks pulled back (from financing projects), retailers pulled back. There's a huge pent up demand," said Adam Frank, president of River Oaks, which has six El Paso shopping centers under construction, another expected to break ground in weeks, and one in the design stage.

"We plan to build many more shopping centers over the next couple of years. We are in kind of a major growth cycle," Frank said.

Quality Of Life Bonds Pass (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21943086/early-voting-results-show-leads-propositions-1-and)


Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved spending more than $470 million to improve parks, libraries and museums and eventually build a multipurpose arena.

Leonard "Tripper" Goodman, chairman of the El Paso Tomorrow political action committee, celebrated the approval of two propositions with others at The Garden restaurant. "This is a renaissance for El Paso," he said. "It's going to be a new El Paso."

Proposition 1 sought $245 million in bonds to improve parks, pools and community centers as well as to continue the revitalization of the zoo.

Proposition 2 approved the sale of $228.25 million in bonds to upgrade museums and libraries, and build a new children's museum and a multipurpose arena.

As a result of passing both propositions, homeowners will pay about $41.42 more a year for a home valued at $100,000 through 2030.

Those in favor of the bonds said they will make El Paso a more attractive place to live.



Voters Approve Hotel Tax To Help Pay For baseball Stadium (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_21943068/proposition-3-early-voting-numbers-show-approval-hotel-tax-downtown-el-paso-stadium-funding?source=most_viewed)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nbK1UlEtI90/UHniyrrJtkI/AAAAAAAABYU/VOErd0XCwrg/s1600/Baseball+New+1.jpg

wow, that is huge for El Paso. Hopefully the projects are done efficiently, and it will be exciting to witness the city's transformation over the next couple of years.

Americas interchange Nearing Opening (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/11/americas-interchange-nearing-opening.html)

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http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NEU-LiwdLOE/UJyZQrG50wI/AAAAAAAABlE/2BEOgvh5v9U/s1600/AI+Nov+03.bmp.jpg

http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/11/americas-interchange-nearing-opening.html

wow, that is huge for El Paso. Hopefully the projects are done efficiently, and it will be exciting to witness the city's transformation over the next couple of years.

The city is exploding. There hasn't been this much activity in nearly 40 years. Billions in new projects, public and private are driving El Paso to places it's never been before. :cheers:

Strong applause for El Paso leaders bringing Populous on board to design the Baseball Stadium. The decision shows focus and genuine intent to move the city forward by hiring one of the world's top firms for design of sport venues.

^^ agreed! :applause:

Strong applause for El Paso leaders bringing Populous on board to design the Baseball Stadium. The decision shows focus and genuine intent to move the city forward by hiring one of the world's top firms for design of sport venues.

I believe Populous will focus on more of the functional aspects of the facility while the local architects they are collaborating with are promising a "ballpark that is respectful of El Paso's history and reflects the architecture of downtown El Paso". Translation: another replicative old timey ballpark. I hope some effort is made to move beyond Trost imitations (as REAL Trosts are being demolished downtown!) and build some forward-looking features.

Two new downtown baseball parks in Juarez and El Paso in two years. Who could of imagined that 5-10 years ago?!!

Agreed. I hope the limited budget helps to move the design away from a "replicative old timey ballpark" and actually produces an original response to the context / program.

Sierra Providence Breaks Ground On East Side Hospital Project (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_22319411/breaking-ground-east-el-paso-hospital-start-67m)

http://www.robinsmorton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/sierraprovidence1_fs.jpg


To meet the area's growing needs, Sierra Providence East Medical Center is adding to its facility.

On Tuesday, officials with Sierra Providence East Medical Center will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the $67 million project, which is expected to add 145,000 square feet to the existing hospital.

The expansion, expected to be completed by 2014, will add a four-story second building that will have 30 medical beds and 30 surgical beds. The expansion will also add 12 beds to the cardiovascular intensive-care unit at the hospital's main building and add 11 beds to emergency department, also in the main building. Additional rooms will be used as classrooms, a cafe and administrative offices.

The hospital, at 3280 Joe Battle, is owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., and officials had anticipated expanding it in 2016.

Increasing emergency-care numbers prompted officials to look into expansions sooner, said Ashley Tantimonaco, a spokeswoman for the hospital. In August, officials with Tenet Healthcare Corp. approved the expansion.

Artspace Concept For Downtown El Paso (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2012/12/artspace-concept-pics-show-modern-design.html)

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The future Artspace building planned for Downtown El Paso could have modern look and use yellow as the main accent color. That's according to several concept pictures posted to the In*Situ Architecture Facebook page, the architecture firm chosen to help design the five-story structure.

The images show the proposed building from several angles. It will take up a half-block of downtown space at 601 North Oregon Street, the former location of the El Paso Saddleblanket retail outlet. The old store had long stood abandoned alongside the new Doubletree Hotel and was demolished earlier this year.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B8MszoSjTMU/UM62UeGQmZI/AAAAAAAAByc/X7kqu8IsCpw/s1600/Insitu+05.jpg

I like the yellow highlights, but I'm interested as to why it was chosen as the color? Perhaps it reflects the abundant sunshine in the city? regardless, the concept is much better than the one-story eyesore it will be replacing!:okay:

Mercado Juárez rebirth: Some say more is needed beyond market face lift (http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_22368272/mercados-rebirth)

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http://www.elpasotimes.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=4879594


JUAREZ -- The once-vibrant tourist magnet, Mercado Juárez, is being remodeled to bring the market back to life and help stimulate the economy, city officials said.

The Mercado, located at 16 de Septiembre Ave. and Agustín Melgar Street, is getting a face lift: Its main entrance and exterior will be remodeled, and one of its parking lots will be turned into a plaza area.

The market's remodeling is part of a much broader multimillion-dollar project that began last year to restore downtown

historic buildings, create a medical tourism district and build a convention center at the foot of the Mexican side of the Paso del Norte Bridge.

Officials and vendors said they hope that the renovated Mercado will bring more locals to the market and again attract American tourists who used to visit here before the wave of drug-related violence in Juárez.

Some experts believe that a face lift to the historic landmark alone is not enough to attract visitors and restimulate the economic impact it once had. What it needs, they argue, is a plan that integrates continued government investment in its restoration with public involvement and promotion of the site.

[...]

I-10 Airway Exit Project To Emphasize 'Flight' (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2013/01/airway-aesthetics-project-inspired-by.html)

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El Paso project updates: Downtown redevelopment on, Net Zero off (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_22362365/downtown-redevelopment-net-zero-off)

http://www.energydigital.com/renewable_energy/SolarStrong_military_solar.jpg
Solar panels, yes. Net-zero, no.


Projects are announced. Some are built, others fizzle. Here are updates on some projects we were wondering about:

Net Zero community

The Army last year issued a proposal to build a huge, green housing project at Fort Bliss -- the Net Zero Plus Housing Community. It was to have about 1,800 single-family homes and 500 apartments with solar panels and other things to make the community not only energy efficient, but also water and waste efficient -- so efficient that it was to produce surplus energy, use only the amount of water it could conserve, and use recycling and other means to eliminate waste. That's why it was called Net Zero.

The Army canceled the project in March, according to a listing on FedBizOpps.gov, the federal procurement opportunities website. "The Net Zero Community is a conceptual project at this time, and there is no definitive time frame for the plan to go forward," Fort Bliss officials reported in a statement issued last week.

However, the statement noted, Balfour Beatty Communities and SolarCity in February will begin a three-year project to install solar panels on about 4,700 homes at Fort Bliss and nearby White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

When completed, more than 50,000 solar panels will have been installed, creating the nation's largest solar-powered community, according to SolarCity, a California solar-installation company, and Beatty, a Pennsylvania developer and manager of military housing.

---

Downtown redevelopment

Several Downtown buildings will be demolished beginning this month to make way for redevelopment projects.

River Oaks Properties, a large shopping center development company owned by Helen of Troy CEO Gerald Rubin, plans to begin demolition within the next two weeks on two buildings at San Antonio Avenue and El Paso Street. The buildings were adjacent to a 130-year-old building, which burned down in a spectacular fire in April.

The site across the street from the Camino Real Hotel would be a great spot for a hotel, retail project or a mixed-use project, said River Oaks President Adam Frank. The company has no specific plan yet. River Oaks could do the multimillion-dollar project by itself or with a partner, he said. "It's a great piece of real estate, and people come to the table when you have good real estate," Frank said.

The City Council reversed an Historic Landmark Commission ruling against demolition of the more than 70-year-old Union Bank building at 104 E. San Antonio. A building at 206 S. El Paso, where a shoe store was located, will also be torn down. Both buildings were deemed structurally unsound, Frank said.

Borderplex Community Trust, an El Paso group aimed at acquiring Downtown buildings for redevelopment, plans to begin interior demolition this week of two buildings on the 200 block of Mesa at Mills. The City Council also reversed a Historic Landmark Commission ruling against demolition of the 230 N. Mesa building designed by Henry Trost -- a famous El Paso architect who designed several stunning Downtown buildings before he died in 1933.

Demolition is expected to take four months for that building, which once housed a Payless Shoe store, and an adjacent one at 218-222 N. Mesa, where several stores moved out, a Borderplex official reported. The group has not yet revealed plans for the site. In June, a Borderplex spokesman said it probably would be a "mixed-use development."

Meanwhile, a small El Paso investors group has plans to lease empty retail space in the vacant, five-story Banner Building it bought last summer -- across the street from the Borderplex buildings -- while it forges a redevelopment plan for the 102-year-old building, also designed by Trost. A banner advertising the space now hangs on the building -- directly across the street from San Jacinto Plaza. "We will try to put retail in the ground floor" while we decide what to do, said Lane Gaddy, an El Paso businessman who heads the investors group. "Tenants would have to remodel the space when they lease it."

The group in the next few months also plans to renovate the outside of another building it owns at 204-210 Mills, where the Tejas Cafe and Purple Pop-Up Gallery are located, Gaddy said. The building, also bought by the group last summer, is next to the buildings Borderplex will demolish. The group also plans to lease the second floor of the Mills building for retail use, he said.

[...]

Hines Working With City On "Upscale Hotel" At Butterfield Golf Course (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_22362365/downtown-redevelopment-net-zero-off)

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/utep/sports/m-golf/auto_original/6235808.jpeg


The city of El Paso is in negotiations with Hines, a huge Houston commercial real estate development company, to put a hotel on the Butterfield Trail golf course, which is on airport land on the East Side.

"We're negotiating the terms of the (land) lease agreement É as well as incentives that the city and the airport would be willing to give to Hines," Monica Lombraña, El Paso International Airport aviation director, said in an email last week. "There are no specifics I can share at this time. We would like to have a final deal within six months."

Hines officials declined to comment on the matter.

Last year, Hines signed a contract with the airport to do a study on the feasibility of building an upscale hotel at the golf course.

Lombraña last year said the city wanted a "high-end business hotel with a well-known flag (hotel franchise) and with conference (rooms) capability," and to eventually have 200 to 250 rooms. It could start with 120 to 150 rooms and expand later, she said.

City to consider strengthening Downtown Historic District (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_61c0b7f8-5da0-11e2-a353-001a4bcf6878.html)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/6973552460_23fae3818d_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwancho/6973552460/)
Downtown El Paso (http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwancho/6973552460/) by Brian Wancho (http://www.flickr.com/people/brianwancho/), on Flickr


Developers say proposal would slow revitalization

Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2013

The effort by city government to assert more control over buildings in the Downtown Historic District is gaining traction, with city officials and preservationists galvanized by the impending demolition of two buildings in the district.

Right now, many buildings in the Downtown Historic District are exempt from city guidelines designed to maintain its historic character. However, City Council is set to consider an ordinance that would extend the historic guidelines to all of the buildings in the district. In general, the guidelines dictate what can and cannot be done to the exterior of buildings there.

On Monday, the Historic Landmark Commission debated the issue, ultimately voting to recommend City Council approve the ordinance. City Council is expected to take up the issue in two weeks. While property owners and city officials interviewed generally agreed it's important that El Paso hold onto its past and try to profit from it, they disagreed on how to do it.

Downtown property owners say they are concerned applying the historic guidelines to all the buildings in the district would stifle Downtown revitalization and lead to the continued deterioration of Downtown buildings. "The best way to spur the restoration of important historic buildings in Downtown is to allow the redevelopment of the buildings around them. As rents rise, it would make the restoration of the historic buildings more economical," said developer Lane Gaddy. Gaddy leads a group of investors who recently purchased several buildings in Downtown, including the historic Martin Building at 201-205 N. Stanton and the Banner Building at 215 N. Mesa. He said the group is holding off on further purchases, waiting to see how City Council votes on the new ordinance.

Historic preservationists question the effectiveness of the city statute meant to protect historic structures in the Downtown Historic District and say the ordinance is necessary for maintaining the unique historic character of Downtown. When the city formed the historic district 20 years ago, it classified close to half of the buildings in the district as "non-contributing." Although the non-contributing buildings are in the historic district, city code doesn't grant them the same protection as other historic landmarks, said city historic preservation officer Providencia Velazquez. It's not clear why some of the buildings were given the designation.

[...]


Two very tough demolitions and one devastating fire later, the city is finally catching up to the 21st century by updating regulations on buildings rather than allowing market forces to dictate their future while preservationists win battles to save structures only to lose the war before the city council. Developers in El Paso are a nasty bunch: they'd rather level downtown for a new Walmart than pay extra for required modifications.

^^ wow, I didn't know things were that divided in DTEP. I'm all for the preservation of historic buildings, but I think it would be wise for the city council to carefully consider which buildings need to be preserved. Not every building requires a fight. I personally love a good mix of old, classy buildings among new, shiny ones.

I-10 Airway Exit Project To Emphasize 'Flight' (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2013/01/airway-aesthetics-project-inspired-by.html)


Great project!... oh, how I hate Sketchup "renderings" :bash:

Building To Replace Mesa St. Landmark Lost In Fire Will Be Simpler (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2013/01/mesa-infill-project-shrinks-in-size.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vxlEMKIxejU/UPjTitqQhGI/AAAAAAAAB7U/THaZnHxL3gI/s1600/901+Mesa+01.bmp.jpg

Previous plan:

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The 3 story historic building that was lost sat next door to the former offices of notorious attorney Lee Chagra:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WzLBdlcbJ9k/UFVes0s76oI/AAAAAAAAA90/IzRVA3sDoDM/s1600/Mesa+Bldg+1.bmp
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2013/01/mesa-infill-project-shrinks-in-size.html

Latest ArtSpace Rendering Released: (http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/2013/01/latest-artspace-rendering-offers.html)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gcO-YDabpMU/UPYqZ6rqUhI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/aFMIH80IiY8/s1600/Artspace+01.bmp.jpg

The more refined version will tone down both the blue walls (to a cooler grayer hue) as well as the bright yellow striping. I think this is a big improvement.

^^ I agree! I am a fan of the yellow pinstripes, but I think this building overall looks more classy!

Back in 2000, Dona Ana County had a resident worker population of 66,761. Of that population, 10,446 workers commuted to El Paso County, Texas. That means that 15.6% of the workforce commuted to El Paso.

On the flipside, 61,198 people worked in Dona Ana County, with 4,674 of those workers commuting from El Paso County, Texas. That means that 7.6% of the jobs in Dona Ana County were held by residents of El Paso County.

When you add those two percentages together you get 23.3%. That would have been enough to meet the 15% minimum requirement for inclusion if delegates from both communities agreed to a merger, but fell short of the 25% requirement for automatic inclusion.

Assuming that in the last 10 years El Paso & Las Cruces have strengthened their commuter relationship, all they needed to gain was 1.7% over the last 10 years. This summer, chances are exceptionally high that we'll be seeing an El Paso-Las Cruces MSA (skipping the CSA step altogether).

Back in 2000, Dona Ana County had a resident worker population of 66,761. Of that population, 10,446 workers commuted to El Paso County, Texas. That means that 15.6% of the workforce commuted to El Paso.

On the flipside, 61,198 people worked in Dona Ana County, with 4,674 of those workers commuting from El Paso County, Texas. That means that 7.6% of the jobs in Dona Ana County were held by residents of El Paso County.

When you add those two percentages together you get 23.3%. That would have been enough to meet the 15% minimum requirement for inclusion if delegates from both communities agreed to a merger, but fell short of the 25% requirement for automatic inclusion.

Assuming that in the last 10 years El Paso & Las Cruces have strengthened their commuter relationship, all they needed to gain was 1.7% over the last 10 years. This summer, chances are exceptionally high that we'll be seeing an El Paso-Las Cruces MSA (skipping the CSA step altogether).

The new Santa Teresa rail facility will bring in many more commuters from El Paso County just as the construction boom is bringing workers to El Paso from Dona Ana County. Ultimately someone is going to develop the hell out of Santa Teresa like the Verde Group was supposed to do. That will conjoin the two metros permanently.

Is anybody aware of how the Santa Teresa Rail Facility construction is progressing? Its been over a year since its broken ground, but I haven't heard much about it. Any updates or info on jobs it is producing?

Is anybody aware of how the Santa Teresa Rail Facility construction is progressing? Its been over a year since its broken ground, but I haven't heard much about it. Any updates or info on jobs it is producing?

Here's an update I posted in Las Cruces Development News:

Santa Teresa Rail Yard Update (http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_22362365/downtown-redevelopment-net-zero-off)

http://blog.sundt.com/wp-content/uploads/Santa-Teresa-aerial-resized-700x384.jpg


Santa Teresa rail facility

Tons of dirt were moved, replaced, and leveled in 2011 and 2012 on the 2,200 acres in Santa Teresa, where Union Pacific is putting the largest intermodal rail yard along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Now, phase two of Union Pacific's $400 million rail facility is beginning.

Sundt Construction has a $172 million contract to construct 26 buildings, install underground water, sewer and electric utilities, do concrete paving, build a fuel facility, and connect it to a new fuel line, the Phoenix area company reported in a recent news letter. "It's like constructing a small city," Eric Weston, Sundt project manager, said in the newsletter. When completed in 2015, the Santa Teresa rail facility will be three-quarters the size of one of the world's largest rail centers -- Union Pacific's Bailey Yard in North Platte, Neb. -- Sundt reported.

Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific's public relations director for New Mexico, said about 200 people are working at the site now. That number is likely to grow as Sundt beefs up for the second phase and Ragnar Benson Construction of Chicago winds down its first phase of dirt-moving work, she said. Union Pacific will use its own crews to lay track and do signal work, she said.

Some of Union Pacific's 400 El Paso employees will be moved to Santa Teresa, which is near El Paso's West Side, when the facility opens. The facility is expected to employ about 600 people by 2025. Union Pacific will continue to operate its Downtown El Paso rail yard, Richmond said. But it will close its small intermodal facility in East-Central El Paso, she said. "We needed (to build) Santa Teresa because we are landlocked in El Paso, and we couldn't expand. We needed area to grow to serve customers," Richmond said

[...]


Work on earthmoving is finished so they've begun building above ground structures. What the UP spokesperson neglected to mention is that besides the constrained bottleneck in El Paso, it was Juarez officials alarmed by a train carrying toxic loads that derailed in the city in the 1990s spurring talk of moving freight traffic out of the city and away ultimately, from central El Paso.

That's pretty awesome. Looking on google maps, it looks like a great location for the yard, and being so near to the Juarez border, should become a significant international rail center.

Brookfield Asset Management Buys Verde Realty For $886 Million

Verde Realty which owns 20,000 acres in Santa Teresa has been sold to Brookfield Asset Management for $886 million. Brookfield, based in Toronto, has $150 billion in managed assets. Verde Realty's multi-billion dollar plans to develop Santa Teresa as a city of over 100,000 fell apart after a failed bid for a special taxing district (TIDD) in 2007 as well as the global financial crisis. Brookfield brings Wall St. muscle and their extensive experience with major real estate development projects to Santa Teresa. Their first project is the completion of a 112,000 sq ft. corporate center. Future develpments will hinge on both the new Union Pacific intermodal rail facility and the upgraded border crossing connecting Santa Teresa with nearby San Jeronimo Mexico, home to a massive Foxconn semiconductor plant. With this purchase, Wall Street has finally entered the fray in developing the Borderland. Where Brookfield goes, others follow.

Luther Bldg. to get $11-million makeover (http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_40b487ac-689e-11e2-8292-001a4bcf6878.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m8rVMrSx-qs/UPTm-uhRgeI/AAAAAAAAB5M/-L4U0KIpzXU/s1600/Luther+01.bmp.jpg
http://elpasodevnews.blogspot.com/


The most expensive piece of the City Hall relocation will be the bottom-to-top restoration and remodeling of the Luther Building, built in 1915. When it’s done, few will see much resemblance to what stands at Campbell and Mills now. But anyone around El Paso 90 years ago might recognize it.

Last week, the El Paso City Council awarded an $11.5 million construction-manager-at-risk contract to C.F. Jordan, but the project could go as high as $13 million.
...

When completed in October, the six-story building with a basement will be home to the city’s Information Technology Department, along with fire and police department functions and other city operations.

“To bring the building back to the beauty we are going to see, it’s not a lot of money,” Helm said. “It will be the permanent home of IT and there’s a lot of infrastructure going in to make that possible. Hidden behind the pebble finish, there is a historic brick facade that will be restored. For most of its life the building was a dry storage warehouse.”

It takes its name from the last business that operated there, Luther Transfer and Storage.

That's a nice photo of downtown El Paso on the last page. Is that the new convention center hotel in those photos? I hadn't realized there was a new hotel.

That's a nice photo of downtown El Paso on the last page. Is that the new convention center hotel in those photos? I hadn't realized there was a new hotel.

The new structure is actually a parking garage for Paul Foster's Western Refining HQ redevelopment at the Mills Bldg. A 1960s Holiday Inn nearby was redeveloped into a Doubletree hotel.