More buildings may soon qualify for historic registry, be eligible for tax credits

ABC-7 has new information on how the County plans to get tax credits on El Paso’s historic buildings.

An already approved $140,000 survey that will soon be conducted by a firm the County hired could increase the number of buildings on the National Historic Registry from a couple dozen to hundreds.

Many will likely get fixed up by their owners, allowing El Paso to cash in with tourism, officials said.

“We have incredible building stock, we are the envy of the entire Southwest,” El Paso County Historical Society Chairman Max Grossman said. “But the problem is we attract only two percent of tourist dollars in the state of Texas.”

The El Paso County Historical Society got the County to pay for the expanded survey of historic buildings, not only in Downtown, but in Segundo Barrio and Chihuahuita.

“If we can restore these assets and make them usable again, we can develop a heritage tourism economy that will take us into the 21st century,” Grossman said.

Currently, there are only 24 buildings on the historic registry in El Paso. Grossman believes hundreds more will be added with this survey, including places like the Bowie Bakery.

“As long as they’re at least 50 years old, which is most of our buildings, as long as they are income producing and as long as they are on the national register of historic places, the owners can apply for up to 45 percent of tax credits to pay for all the hard and soft costs of renovation,” Grossman said.

“If that’s what it takes to make the people invest in these buildings, then yes,” said El Pasoan Debbie Cosgrove, who paused to view a new Texas Trost Society exhibit in Downtown El Paso with friends from Germany.

ABC-7 asked her friend from Germany, Till Baumann, if he thinks people will come to El Paso to see what it has to offer. “If you market it right, then yeah,” Baumann said.

“We can get there if we give tourists a reason to get off I-10 on the way to Austin,” Grossman said. “And it has to be about the beauty and unique quality of our built environment first and foremost.”

The Texas Trost Society exhibit is scheduled for a 10 a.m. Downtown ribbon cutting on Saturday at Pioneer Plaza. The exhibit is free and there will also be free tours of historic buildings.