This downtown building could be the site of El Paso’s hottest new housing development

EL PASO, TX (KVIA) -- Earlier today, El Paso city council unanimously voted in favor of a multi-family housing development project in downtown El Paso.

The project will take place at the historic Popular Building.

The project is estimated to cost around 42 million dollars for the developers, with the city providing an incentive package of around 7 million dollars.

The developer of the project, Robert Palacios, is an El Paso native, and has been interested in pursuing the project for years, dating back to his previous job at a national real estate firm.

Palacios says he expects the projects to be completed by 2028, but there are some steps where he says the timeline is out of his control.

"The historic tax credit application is going to be one of the key components, as well as other, applications for federal and state funding. These applications sometimes can take a bit of time. I have a very qualified group of architects working with me on this project, and I don't anticipate that, there would be any significant delays to the, to the proposed timeline."

ABC-7 spoke with another developer on the project who said that the redevelopment will bring new people to downtown, both residential and retailers.

"This project is going to influence downtown. And it's it's pretty much the next phase to bring in a population, a good population of people, and attract the, the retail that we need," said Nadia Baem, a member of the downtown management district.

The team working on the project have identified this redevelopment as a high priority when thinking of the growth of downtown.

Karina Brasgalla, the interim director for economic and international development in El Paso said they've made progress in bringing retail and commercial business to downtown.

AND RESIDENTS ARE WHAT THEY ARE AIMING FOR TO CONTINUE

THAT GROWTH, ESTABLISHING A GROCERY STORE, MORE RESTAURANTS, AND INVIGORATING SMALL BUSINESSES. They are aiming at residents to help continue that growth, trying to establish a grocery store, more restaurants, and invigorating small businesses.

"So this is the natural next step in the plan for downtown in what we've seen, you know, stemming from the 2012 quality of bond projects, from the 2016 reinvigoration of San Jacinto Plaza, many of the projects that we started really going back decades residential is the next step."

The redevelopment is still waiting on both federal and state funding, as well as the tax application before they can officially start. But they foresee no real delays in their timeline, which is expected to complete in 2028.