Centergy Retail already eyeing next El Paso project

The company finishing up El Paso’s newest shopping center — The Fountains at Farah in East El Paso — is already planning another shopping center in Northwest El Paso.

A new retail development from Centergy Retail will be located by Artcraft Road and Paseo Del Norte, on the Northeast and Southeast corners of the intersection along Interstate 10.

“It’s our next El Paso project,” said West Miller, principal for Centergy Retail out of Dallas.

Miller said the shopping center will feature more than 100 acres of land and the possiblity of 700,000 to 800,000 square feet of retail space.

“It’s not going to be designed in the same format as the Fountains at Farah, adjacent to Cielo Vista Mall,” Miller said. “But it will be a new retail hub that that corridor desperately needs and we feel the demand is there for today.”

Miller said construction could start as soon as next year with a 2015 completion date a possibility.

“It depends on the retailers themselves,” he said. “The good news is we will probably be parlaying our relationships with some of the tenants we have in the Fountains at Farah that will possibly want to come to the West Side of town.”

Miller said it’s all still in the planning stages and he doesn’t have any deals done yet, but some of the retailers that he mentioned were Target, HEB and even Trader Joe’s.

“More things to do, less driving, not so far,” said Northwest resident Perla Hernandez, who is excited about the new shopping center. “(If you need something), you have to go all the way to Walmart.”

Others in the area were not excited about the probability of more traffic.

“We already got a lot of traffic here,” said Northwest resident Louie Davila, who said despite that, his wife will be thrilled with the shopping options. “I’m sure she’ll be happy about it, so I’m sure she’s going to go for it. She’ll be rooting for it.”

Miller said Centergy “loves” the opportunities it’s found in El Paso.

“We think it’s a great purchasing power market, because you throw in Juarez and Mexico with El Paso’s purchasing power and it’s literally two and a half million people and it’s one of the larger metroplexes in the United States so we’re very bullish on El Paso.”