Support and opposition grow for proposed Westside tower
The proposed 22-story westside El Paso hotel and apartment tower is a step closer to becoming a reality. The Meyers Group, the tower’s developer, has closed on the purchase of the property where it is meant to be built off of Shadow Mountain Drive.
But in the meantime, opposition and support is mounting for the $100 million dollar project. So how do the dueling petitions stack up in their reasoning?
ABC-7 investigated and found a lot of claims are going around about what the impact will be if the 22-story westside tower get built.
“We see that people in the community want growth, and want development,” said Chelsea Lamego, one of the founders of a petition supporting the tower.
Lamego believes that property values will go up as a result.
“Having a building like that makes the area more desirable to not only people in El Paso, but people who might be considering moving to El Paso,” Lamego said.
But people like Kristyn Ingram argue it will have the opposite effect.
“It will potentially hurt our property values,” Ingram said. “Having something that could block a lot of views is a downside. And that in and of itself could hurt the value of the area as well.”
There will certainly be some impact on the view by building the 22-story tower, expected to be one of the tallest in the city. But local real estate experts don’t think it will impact property values that much, at least when it comes to the view.
“Arguably, there will be some loss of some views for some people,” said realtor Michael Bray. “I don’t see that as a big overriding factor where it’s going to severely impact values in this particular area.”
Bray is a realtor with Exit West Realty, about a block up the street from the proposed tower site. In his experience, lots in the area are rarely sold for their views.
“It’s more the value is in the location or the amenities as opposed to any views it might have,” Bray said.
Amenities could increase in the area as a result as well. That’s one of the expectations of commercial real estate broker Juan Uribe.
“Something like this is definitely going to make (nearby businesses) Eloise or Pelicans busier,” Uribe said. “And then because of that, there’s going to be other businesses that are going to grow in the area. So we might have more restaurants interested now that we have more people.”
People opposed right now said they wouldn’t mind that if it came true, as long as the city addresses the traffic.
“I don’t like any of those other issues either,” Ingram said, “but the biggest issue for me is that traffic.”
You can take a look at some of the petitions about the tower online now and decide for yourself:
