City: Abraham has not made improvements suggested for American Furniture Building

ABC-7 got an update Tuesday on two Downtown buildings owned by Billy Abraham, who was released from prison on Monday after serving two years for a 2010 drunk driving incident in which a man was killed and he failed to render air.

The buildings, previously deemed unsafe for occupancy, are the American Furniture building at 105 North Oregon Street, around the corner from the Camino Real hotel; and the Toltec building, located at 717 East San Antonio Avenue, near the Federal Courthouse.

City officials said they are two of at least six buildings in Downtown El Paso in disrepair, four of which are owned by Abraham.

Back in May, the city ordered Abraham to pay $2.1 million dollars in fines for a lengthy list of code violations it found at the American Furniture building.

Toltec Building

That fine has not been paid and improvements have not been made, Larry Nichols, director of planning and inspections with the City of El Paso, said Tuesday.

The final two occupants of the building, a dress shop and a UPS store, were ordered to vacate in July.

Nichols said the dress shop is gone and UPS is in the process of leaving. Nichols said the building will soon be boarded up and secured.

“If the owner were to correct those and do the rehabilitation of the conditions, the building could be reopened,” Nichols said. “There is no timeline, but until that happens it will remain boarded and secured. That will be the order.”

Reopening the American Furniture building would require the electrical system to be re-evaluated, structural issues would also have to be addressed along with plumbing and trash removal.

Electrical repairs have been made to the Toltec, allowing it to keep its certificate of occupancy.

ABC-7 reached out to Abraham for comment Tuesday, but have yet to hear back from him, his assistant or his attorney.