Former Mayor: Building arena at convention center site could cost hotels millions

If City Council decides to relocate the building of a new $180 million Downtown arena to the site of the current Convention Center, it could cost hotels in the area millions, according to former El Paso Mayor John Cook.

“What we’re concerned about is two things,” said Cook, now a consultant to El Paso lawyer Jim Scherr in the building of a Courtyard Marriott near the Convention Center. “No. 1, if they demolish the Convention Center and build another one, we would lose $2 million in hotel occupancy tax refunded by the state. No. 2, if you shut down the Convention Center for two and a half years while building a new one, you’re going to hurt all the hotels Downtown that depend on conventions to survive.”

A state program allows the City of El Paso to issue hotel occupancy tax rebates for hotels that are within 1,000 feet of the Convention Center. The concern, Cook said, is whether hotels will still legally be able to draw those credits if the Convention Center site is used for the arena or while it is being built.

The Convention Center site, next to the Abraham Chavez Theater, was mentioned as a possible site for the arena coming out of meetings last Friday between Mayor Oscar Leeser and several City Representatives. No one specified whether that would involve tearing down the current Convention Center, but that may be the only site where the arena would fit.

“I’m here to encourage you not to back yourselves into a corner,” Downtown Management District Director Joe Gudenrath told City Council prior to a discussion on the arena site in executive session. “There’s been very little work done to see what this would do to the hotel-motel economy. We do speculate with Mr. Cook it would have a negative impact.”

Before going into executive session and after listening to several residents of the Duranguito area speak, City Rep. Cortney Niland said with tears in her eyes: “I can’t move forward with this neighborhood (currently slated for the arena) knowing what I know today. “