El Paso moves forward with plans to redevelop Duranguito
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The city of El Paso is officially moving forward with plans to redevelop the Duranguito neighborhood.
They issued out an RFQ, a request for qualification, on the 17 city owned properties in the neighborhood. They are seeking experienced development teams to redevelop the area using "adaptive reuse". They want to repurpose the properties while maintaining its historic or architectural features.
"It may be retail, it may be housing, it may be, you know, different things that, really just to help bring that area back to life," said Deputy City Manager Robert Cortinas. He added that they heard from the community that adaptive reuse is something they want. ABC-7 went out to speak with El Pasoans, who gave us similar responses.
"These buildings, all the buildings are very historic. There's a lot of story behind this building. So I think it would be a tourist attraction," said Alfredo Machuca.
Two other El Pasoans told ABC-7 that they believed development should happen elsewhere, and it should've happened before the city bought out the buildings for the MPC that was supposed to be built at Duranguito.
"It's their houses. It's their families, it's their legacies. So we have enough bars in El Paso. We have enough, you know, everything, you know, leave that area alone," said Christian Uranga. Uranga added that if they are going to redevelop, he would like for them to add housing to the area to allow those who left to come back.
