City Hall Could Fall To Make Way For New Ballpark

Talk about Triple-A baseball and a Downtown ballpark is heating up.

But what does that have to do with talk about knocking down City Hall and revitalizing the KRESS building?

After Tuesday’s City Council meeting, ABC-7 overheard members of council talking about the possibility of knocking down City Hall, building a Triple-A ballpark on that site and using the KRESS building as a possible new location for a portion of City Hall.

“It’s no secret, El Paso may be in the running for a Triple-A team,” City Representative Steve Ortega said.

And if El Paso millionaires Paul Foster and Woody Hunt pull off the acquisition of that franchise, a Downtown ballpark will have to be built … And fast!

“We the council will have to decide whether or not we want to work with the potential owners on a stadium arrangement and one of the sites that has been talked about is the City Hall site,” Ortega said.

“Obviously, I think (the City Hall site) would be the prime location for a baseball field and hope of a Triple-A team because of its close proximity to Interstate 10,” Representative Emma Acosta added. “But, if we do that, we know that we need a new home for City Hall and so obviously we’re exploring other possibilities, the KRESS building being one of them.”

Council discussed in executive session tuesday what to do about the run-down KRESS building one of the ideas was to buy it or acquire it by eminent domain and move a portion of city hall there.

“I don’t have a problem saying that we probably do need a new home for City Hall,” Acosta said.

“I think that’s one of the options,” Ortega added. “The reality is, the more land owners that you have to deal with the longer it’s going to take.”

Ortega said if the ownership group lands a Triple-A franchise, since City Hall — built in 1979 and accumulating many deferred maintenance costs — is owned by the city: “It would be the most expedient option, if time is of the essence and I don’t know if Triple-A wants to wait four, five, six years to have a stadium to play ball in.”

Acosta asked City Manager Joyce Wilson for a cost-benefit analysis of tearing down City Hall to make way for a ballpark. Ortega said clearing out of City Hall and bringing it down to build a ballpark could happen in the next eight to 16 months, and negotiating for another site downtown could take several years.