Building donation may change City Hall relocation plan

The biggest issue many seem to have when it comes to the building of El Paso’s new Triple-A ballpark is the fact that City hall would have to be relocated.

The City talked more about that relocation Monday, including the donation of a building which could change the City Hall gameplan.

The building is the Luther building, located at Campbell and Mills, and the owner who has donated it to the City is Paul Foster, one of the local millionaires purchasing the Triple-A team.

On Tuesday City Council was scheduled to vote on three items when it comes to the relocation of City Hall. One of those items has been delayed a week, however.

Council will vote on whether to accept the donation of the Luther building, valued at $2.3 million, from Foster. The building was initially identified as a safe haven for the City to house its information technology department, but the estimated cost of renovation at $17 million scared some city reps away.

The City said they are now projecting the cost of renovation for the Luther building at $8 to $10 million.

City Council’s vote on the purchase of the $2.3 million buildings at 801 and 811 Texas Avenue and whether to purchase the El Paso Times building near the Luther building for $11 million will have to wait another week. But Council will vote on whether to create an $81 million City Hall relocation and ballpark capital improvement plan, including more than $50 million to build the ballpark.

City Manager Joyce Wilson agreed that the biggest issue with the ballpark is relocating City Hall, which before the Luther building donation was projected to cost about $29 million for buildings and another $4 million in moving costs.

During a final news conference before Tuesday’s big vote, Wilson talked at length about the decision to use the City Hall property for a ballpark and relocated City Hall.

“At the end of the day, you have a pretty significant piece of real estate in downtown, prime location,” Wilson said. “It was a business transaction only. Right now,this real estate asset is not making any income for the city or the community, other than housing offices.”

Wilson and other City officials are confident that using the City Hall site for the ballpark will create additional revenue and help offset the moving costs for City Hall at some point. But if that doesn’t happen,, they have projected a rise in property taxes of about $6.20 a year for each $100,000 of property valuation..