Hotel and restaurant owners concerned over possible convention center closure

Hotel and restaurant owners in Downtown El Paso are concerned recent changes to the downtown arena project could impact their businesses.

Hotel Gardner owner Joe Nebhan said that while his business would survive, there would be a hit to the bottom line if fewer events were held Downtown as a result of the convention center being shut down for an extended period of time.

“The Gardner will survive,” Nebhan said. “The Gardner went through the Depression of the 30’s, everything like that. We’re established. We have our regular clientele come in. We will survive. As for the other businesses, they may take a bigger hit on it than the hotel itself would.”

It would be particularly painful if some of the street level businesses Nebhan leases out had to shut down because of less traffic and revenue. Beyond the rent, he would lose amenities for hotel guests.

One of those businesses is Pot Au Feu, a restaurant offering French-inspired global businesses. Owner Roberto Espinosa told ABC-7 about three-quarters of his business was driven by people coming into downtown for various events happening there. And while loosing the convention center draw wouldn’t drive them out of business, it would force them to change their focus – such as pursuing more catering work and more.

“Not stocking the product as much,” Espinosa said. “Maybe some jobs would be affected. Hours would be cut. Stuff like that.”

City Rep. Cortney Niland said that those were concerns city staff would have to look at investigating the feasibility of the convention center site for the downtown arena. She wants to have a study on that available by early January of next year so city Council can make an informed decision.

“I would hope so,” Niland said of finding out more in January. “And then basically be able to come back to us and say ‘Alright, just a rough sketch, rough pencil to the paper. Here’s what we see. Do you guys want to continue in this direction? Do you want to talk about it publicly? What do you want to do?’ And then help us, guide us to make the decision.”

Niland said that moving quickly was important since significant delays could lead to greater cost for the project like interest rates and construction costs. That’s why council moved up the arena project in the overall 10 year timeline of projects in the 2012 bond according to Niland.

“We were clear (Tuesday) with management and staff that we want to keep this project moving,” Niland said. “We don’t want to be subject to interest rate risk and delaying this project. But at the same time, we have to make sure this is a very transparent process and that the public feels good about the decision they’re making.”