Why So Many Half-Empty Strip Malls In Far East El Paso?

It may be hard to imagine, but it wasn’t too long ago when far east El Paso was still just desert frontier.

Now, it’s full of homes, roads and shopping centers…lots of shopping centers.

But it wasn’t advertisements ABC-7 spotted in many storefront windows, it was ‘for lease’ signs.

It seems, these days, the number of retail spaces outnumbers the number of tenants.

At one newly-constructed strip mall on Zaragoza near Joe Battle, suites 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 110 and 111 were all vacant.

So is east El Paso overbuilt?

Not necessarily, says UTEP Economics Professor Tom Fullerton.

“If anything, the eastside is about where it should be or maybe even a little behind where it should be,” Fullerton told ABC-7.

He added the growth in the far east has really been tremendous by any standard.

Sergio Tinajero had a front row seat for all that growth as a commercial real estate agent in El Paso.

“There was a lot of build-out,” he said. “Everybody was building shopping centers up and down the streets.”

Tinajero said 2008 and 2009 were pretty cruel years for strip malls.

But business is bouncing back, he said, with help from soldiers and with help from south of the border.

“Restaurant and business entrepreneurs from Jurez are moving to El Paso and they’re filling those spaces,” he told ABC-7.

Tinajero said to expect to see construction pick up once again on new shopping centers in the next few months.