City hires architect for Northgate Transfer Center

The council on Tuesday hired an architect to design the future Northgate Transfer Center which will be located next to the old Northpark mall site at Wren and Diana.

This won’t just be a regular bus terminal. It’ll have a parking garage so people can park and ride sun metro to other parts of the city. And it’ll be part of a much bigger walkable community.

Hunt Metro 31, a part of Hunt Communities is leasing from the city the 31 acres next to the future transfer center. Their plan is to develop it into a smart code community with shops, restaurants, lofts, apartments and a park.

This has been a long term effort. In 2011, the city spent $10 million to buy the land and demolish the old mall. Then it looked for a developer and City Council waived about $13 million worth of taxes and fees for Hunt to develop the land.

And finally: the City has been approved for federal funding to build the terminal. “You have your transit on one side and you have your housing on the other side along with retail. So this will be the first of its kind in El Paso with the opportunity that we could have others in El Paso,” said City Rep. Carl Robinson, who represents the area.

The City Council approved the $1.3 million contract with the firm, Exigo who will be designing the terminal and should be finished by March 2016 or earlier. Construction on the Northgate Transfer Center should be finished by 2017, according to city officials.