El Paso City Representatives push to put Multipurpose Center project back on ballot

UPDATE: Motion passes with a 5 to 3 vote. Representatives Brian Kennedy, Joe Molinar, Art Fierro, Henry Rivera and Chris Canales voting yes. Representatives Josh Acevedo, Cassandra Hernandez and Joe Molinar voting no. As for the next steps, the City Manager and City Attorney will begin the process to put the proposition on the November ballot, it will go back to City Council for final approval.

EL PASO, TX (KVIA) — After 12 years of discussion and setbacks, the future of the Multipurpose Center project may soon be back in the hands of voters. City Council is set to discuss an initiative to put the project on the November ballot, giving El Paso residents a chance to decide the future of the project.

The Multipurpose Center was initially approved under the 2012 Quality of Life Bond. The city currently has $128 million in unsold bonds allocated for the project. However, City Representative Chris Canales, who represents the downtown area, told ABC-7 he believes the original vision for a large indoor arena is no longer feasible with these funds.

Canales emphasizes that the city does not yet have this money, as the bonds remain unsold. He explained that if voters choose to revoke the authority, the city would not incur the debt.

"What voters passed in 2012 was authorizing the city to take on that debt in order to build the project," he said. "Now, the other part of the agenda item deals with the debt that has already been taken out for this project. It's a much smaller amount, and it would just instruct the city attorney and city manager to take the steps they needed to in order to pay that debt off early so that the city is free and clear of anything related to the project."

The most recent proposed site for the Multipurpose Center is the area behind historic Union Depot building. The proposal includes a hybrid arena, with 4,000 seats indoors and 4,000 seats outdoor. However, City Council turned down the proposal, stating the area was too small and did not align with what was promised to voters in 2012. 

Canales placed the item on today’s City Council agenda, “There's no other alternative way forward that the city has put together at this point. And so that's why I thought now is the right time to say it. We should ask the voters whether or not they want to proceed with the project at all,” says Canales.

Representative Brian Kennedy supports the move to put the project back on the ballot. He told ABC-7 there was a lack of transparency back in 2012, “What was originally proposed was a 12,000 to 15,000 seat indoor first class concert sports arena, and that is not even close to possible with the money that's left,” he says. “I don't think there was a whole lot of transparency when they ran the first bond, because they thought the voters would say yes to this. And then if it costs another 100 million, we'll just figure it out. And I'm not a fan of that.”

Kennedy notes that if voters decide against the project, the city could potentially explore new plans, “I will say that that I would hope that we would be allowed to not do this project, but go back and fully flesh out a real arena project with public private, other entities and and see what we can do,” he says.

"Our choices are not to say, well, I want a different project with this. It's a yes or no," Kennedy explained. "Do you want the project we proposed behind Union Depot, or do you want us to stop the project? Because that's all we have left. It's not like, well, what I would like is a 20,000-seat arena with skyboxes and an extra parking lot. No, no, none of that's possible."

The proposal comes at the same time City Council passed the Northeast Sunset Amphitheater, however Canales added that he does not believe the Cohen Entertainment District project affects the future of the Multipurpose Center, “Regardless of what's being built anywhere else, the amount of money that's allocated to to the MPC project, the Downtown Arena project, it's still not enough,” he emphasizes.

If City Council approves the item today, it will begin the process to put the proposition on the November ballot. 

City Council meeting begins at 9:00 a.m. today. Stay with ABC-7 for the latest decision.