City working to update Downtown El Paso Master Plan

The city of El Paso is working to update the Downtown Master Plan as it works to develop strategies for parking, historic preservation, and new development.

In 2015, the city hired a Dallas-based consultant team to identify issues that need to be addressed in an action plan.

In recent years, downtown El Paso has experienced new development. The San Jacinto Plaza project was finished this year and a Downtown arena is the next project on the horizon. City manager Tommy Gonzalez said there have been 17 incentive agreements approved by city council in the last two years.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say we are revitalizing downtown, I think it’s already revitalized. I think it’s a matter of managing the growth and development that is taking place taking place right now,” said Gonzalez.

The city hired consultants Gateway Planning and Catalyst Commercial to help come up with priorities for an action plan. The team engaged owners, investors, the Downtown Management District, the Central Business Association, Paso Del Norte, the Historic Preservation Community, the County, Progress123, the Borderplex Alliance, the medical Centers of the Americas and other stakeholders.

“If we build a parking lot here today to facilitate today, or build a facility to facilitate today, that’s not the right way of doing it,” said El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, “That long term development that we are going to look at – 10, 20, 30 years from now – that’s how you want to invest taxpayers money.”

The consultant team identified certain strategies need to be developed to mold a successful downtown El Paso.

“I think the highlight is the market and the local investment and business community basically saying ‘we are in, we are all in for Downtown.’ And now I think the opportunity is for the city and its partners, like Sun Metro and TxDOT and the county, to figure out how to support that momentum,” said Scott Polikov, with Gateway Planning.

One of those areas is the potential for new housing Downtown. Other opportunities include exploring the locating and site design of the remaining Quality of Life Bond projects to determine the potential for public spaces, the demand for parking and historic preservation.

The team also asked city officials to consider acknowledging the generation-long disconnect between the border retail economy and the rest of Downtown and determine a strategy to link the two.