City approves negotiations with Meyers Group to redevelop Camino Real Hotel

The city of El Paso may see a convention hotel in downtown El Paso again.

Late Tuesday, city council unanimously voted to authorize negotiations with The Meyers Group for redevelopment of the Camino Real Hotel at 101 S. El Paso St.

“This has been a priority for council for three years now,” said Mayor Oscar Leeser after the vote. He praised the efforts of city staff and council in securing a major piece of downtown redevelopment. “This is a huge step forward to continue to grow the economy,” he said.

A city news release stated the renovation is expected to cost $70 million, with city, county and state incentives of $34 million.

The Meyers Group is behind the proposed developments of a 22-story tower in west El Paso off Shadow Mountain Dr. The combination hotel-residential-commercial project would be one of the tallest buildings in El Paso and the tallest in west El Paso by about 10 stories.

Council was expected to vote on the controversial Shadow Mountain tower Tuesday but the item was postponed until July 19.

Instead, council discussed the proposal to award incentives during executive session, then voted to approve negotiations with the Meyers group afterwards. The vote was 7-0. Rep. Cortney Niland was absent.

The two projects are not related and the incentives are not part of a packaged deal, a representative from the Meyers group told ABC-7.

The redevelopment of the historic Camino Real hotel has long been a goal of city officials. The property sits across the convention center and, according to the hotel’s website, has 357 rooms.

The property fell in disrepair even before Grupo Empresarial Angeles, a Mexican company that owns dozens of hotels, took it over, but its decay accelerated since then.

Frustrated city and tourism officials have said the state of the hotel is such that El Paso has lost out on conventions because people don’t want to stay at the Camino Real as the owners failed to upgrade it to convention standards and the city couldn’t recommend it, either.

As ABC-7 reported in 2013, city officials blamed the loss of the national convention for the League of United Latin American Citizens on the Camino Real.

“They didn’t come because of the lack of rooms in the downtown area and because the Camino Real was not really accommodating to them,” said City Representative Emma Acosta back then.

At that time, city officials said the hotel had failed to secure financing to remodel hundreds of rooms in several floors. One third of the rooms were out of service and in need of repair, they said.

City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said the incentives for the 1912 hotel are a sound investment.

“This project includes a return on investment clause that pays the City a percentage of the net profits in perpetuity,” he said in a statement. “When completed, the convention hotel will bring even greater opportunities to our already thriving downtown.”

Council is expected to vote on a final incentive agreement in September.