Old Saddleblanket building to be new home of Pima Medical Institute

An iconic former store in the Borderland has been quietly been undergoing a transformation. But are delays making it a target for vandals?

To the casual passer-by, there may not seem to be much happening with the former El Paso Saddleblanket building. But that’s just the view on the outside.

The building was bought by Pima Medical Institute, a for-profit medical career college, at the start of this year to be turned into a new 40,000 square foot campus, originally set to be opened around September. Some setbacks like unexpected asbestos removal pushed that date further back, and the building has been targeted by vandals in the past few days.

That’s been cleaned up, and work is continuing, turning the former store, and before that a bowling alley, into classrooms and more.

“It’s going to house some 12 programs that we have and the construction’s been ongoing for a while,” said Keever Jankovich, campus director for Pima El Paso. “It was held up a little bit with permits and things like that, but it’s off an rolling now.”

Businesses around the building told ABC-7 that problems like the graffiti haven’t happened before now. The construction itself is moving into the next phase, with photos taken by staff from inside showing the building is pretty well gutted, and ready for the build-out.

“They’ve got most of the demolition done, they’ve got the plumbing done,” Jankovich said. “They’re starting to frame the inside of what the campus is going to be like. And they’re off and going.”

Once done, Pima will move from it’s current 6,000 square foot campus just off Lee Trevino Drive. The new campus will also allow them to increase student capacity from 150 now to roughly 500, and go from current staff levels of 15 to 50 overall.

“It opens up a lot of room and a lot of flexibility for us to grow, and have morning, afternoon and evening classes,” Jankovich said. “So we’re really excited for that. and having all that space is going to be great for the students.”

Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Jankovich said that classes at the new campus should start in the new year.