San Jacinto Plaza to be finished mid-March, official says

Start the countdown!

City officials told ABC-7 Tuesday they expect the long-overdue $4.5 million San Jacinto Plaza renovation project to be completed in 10 days.

City Capital Improvements Department Director Monica Lombrana said that March 18 is the new target date. That’s more than 14 months after what was considered the original completion date for the project — December of 2014.

ABC-7 spotted workers putting what is believed to be the final touches on San Jacinto Plaza’s renovation on Tuesday afternoon.

The project started in the spring of 2013. When it was not finished by the end of 2014, a new finish date was set for February 2015, or about a year ago. The City then pushed back the finish date to May of 2015 and is now more than nine months past that.

The city says it will fine the contractor, Basic IDIQ, $1,000 for every day over the projected finish date. But it’s unclear which date will be used.

Lombrana told ABC-7 the total amount is still being negotiated between the City and the contractor.

“It’s still something that’s under negotiation in terms of the number of days that they’re owed, versus the number of days they’re actually over,” Lombrana said. “They’re still some change orders that we’re negotiating and so some of those change orders will more than likely add some days as well. But everything is still under negotiation.”

San Jacinto Plaza should be ready for two big May events: The Mariachi Festival and Neon Desert.

After telling Neon Desert producer Zach Paul it is almost complete and will be available for the first time in three years, he said: “That’s really exciting for us! San Jacinto is the heart of El Paso and the heart of our festival.”