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What’s next for Duranguito? Buildings remain abandoned, fenced off as arena plans crumble [1]

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Date: 2024-12-16

Yellow smiley faces, red hearts and colorful rainbows drawn in chalk on the sidewalk of Chihuahua Street show remnants of activity in the neighborhood where the Downtown arena was once to be built.

Green mesh tarps and chain link fences create privacy screens erected by the city to protect the buildings it purchased about seven years ago when it looked to revitalize the area with the $180 million, 15,000-seat venue approved by voters in 2012. The city abandoned its plans to build the arena there two years ago, and the buildings continue to deteriorate, appearing in a state of disrepair after former owners prematurely began demolition.

Only the remnants of a blue tarp that used to cover the Chinese Laundry building’s roof remain tied to cinder blocks, wood panels meant to cover windows are missing on several buildings, and weeds, trash and empty beer cans litter the empty lot where a community garden once bloomed.

Aside from minor maintenance work, the area south of the Judson F. Williams Convention Center has been largely untouched since 2016, when the City Council voted to build the arena there. The city abandoned its plans to build the arena there after years of legal battles with conservationists who wanted to see the area preserved as a historic neighborhood.

Chalk drawings on the sidewalk along Chihuahua Street in the Duranguito neighborhood

Now, the city is looking for proposals to bring the Duranguito neighborhood back to life, developing a request for qualifications that could determine how the area is developed. That includes purchasing the 19 properties from the city, which paid $13 million for them.

Karina Brasgalla, the city’s interim director for economic and international development, said the RFQ is the next step in a two-part process for the development of the area. The first was in March when the city issued an informal request for letters of interest.

“I’ll be frank, the level of interest and the responses that we received was not what we were hoping for,” Brasgalla said. “It’s not that those responses weren’t good, it just wasn’t 100% where we wanted to be if we’re going to negotiate a sale.”

Some boarded up buildings in the Duranguito neighborhood show expanded damage the past several years. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters) An empty lot between decaying buildings in Duranguito remains fenced off as trash and weeds pile up. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters)

Brasgalla said the city hoped an informal request would yield more feedback and responses, but only five were submitted. None fit the needs of what the City Council requested, including the adaptive reuse of the site. That would mean updating and adapting the existing structures for uses other than their intended use, such as turning vacant office buildings into residential buildings or warehouses into restaurants or retail spaces.

She said the RFQ will likely be ready early next year, adding that the city’s legal department is working to ensure the language and requirements in the bids request include the preferred uses for the site, restrictions on demolition, and the requirement that properties eligible for historic landmark designations are registered.

“It’s pretty rare that we put city owned property out through procurement,” Brasgalla said. “We don’t have any recent examples locally, although this is something that other jurisdictions have done, so (we are) really making sure we’re being careful with all the procurement regulations, and then making sure that it’s being sensitive to what the council wants.”

The bid window will likely be 60 days, once it is posted, but may be extended depending on the quantity and level of responses, she said.

Factoring into the process is the direction of the incoming mayor and City Council, who’ll take office in early January, as the new city leadership will largely dictate the future of the site.

Voters on Nov. 5 approved a proposition that prohibits the city from issuing the remainder of the arena bonds that could have been used to move forward with an arena in Downtown. And while the City Council can bring forward a new proposal for a sports and entertainment venue in the future, it could choose whether or not to locate it in Downtown.

The City Council in December 2023 approved easing architectural design and building guidelines for the Union Plaza District. The changes included allowing for the building of a multipurpose center. Brasgalla said the changes will apply to future development in the area, including the Duranguito site.

Looking for a seat at the table in discussions

Preservationists want to see buildings that could qualify for historic designations registered and the neighborhood restored while business leaders argue there have to be extensive discussions on how to best utilize the space and buildings.

“It was originally a neighborhood, and the last thing we want to see is it being given out to a master developer that will gentrify the space – for us that will be a huge loss,” said David Romo, an El Paso historian and vice president of Project Regeneracion, a nonprofit advocating for the restoration of Duranguito as a neighborhood.

Buildings on Chihuahua Street in Downtown El Paso remain behind chain-link and green mesh fencing as the city decides how to develop the neighborhood known as Duranguito. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters)

Romo said advocates want to see the neighborhood restored, services for people who want to live there, low-income housing and for the area to be designated a historical site with mixed-use indoor and outdoor spaces and the buildings preserved.

“We envision this as a place for cultural heritage and visitors, but without it being gentrified,” Romo said.

Romo and members of Project Regeneracion, in hopes that the county could purchase the buildings from the city, gave the El Paso County Commissioners Court a presentation in March 2023 on their vision for the site. Although some commissioners expressed support, they did not take action.

They also tried to present the proposal to the City Council in November 2023, but the item was deleted after the group waited several hours to present. The hope was for the city to consider offering incentives to prospective buyers to incorporate their proposal into development plans.

While Romo and neighborhood advocates envision a specific plan, others want to see the city be more collaborative to determine what becomes of the area.

“The city’s disposal or sale of those properties is probably one of the most important decisions that they have to make going forward,” said Joe Gudenrath, executive director of the El Paso Downtown Management District, adding it is important the city do the right thing as opposed to the quickest thing.

The Duranguito neighborhood in the Union Plaza area of Downtown, pictured in July 2022. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) The city-owned buildings in the Duranguito neighborhood sit just south of the Judson F. Williams Convention Center, Dec. 11, 20224. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters)

Gudenrath said he is concerned there hasn’t been more transparency and the city should be having conversations with the private sector, the Downtown Management District, Downtown property owners and developers in town and out of town to determine the best use for the properties before taking action on how to dispose of them.

“It is my opinion that these types of opportunities of large swaths of land within an urban setting are very rarely available for development or redevelopment, and so they are sitting on something that probably would have great value in terms of its future use for Downtown El Paso,” he said.

He said while having boarded up and fenced-in buildings to keep the area safe is a suitable option for the time being, the city needs to take the time to have conversations with the community to determine the best long-term outcome.

In 2017, demolition crews hired by the former owners of some of the buildings damaged several of them before a court placed an injunction on demolition. The city fenced-in the area for several years before reopening Chihuahua Street in the site in October 2023.

The city spent about $30,000 to secure two of the buildings in March 2022. The work included protecting the roof of the Chinese Laundry at 212 W. Overland Ave. and stabilizing the Flor de Luna building at 300 W. Overland Ave. with steel jacks, roof and wood braces and window coverings. The large hole in the front of the building was also sealed with bricks.

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/12/16/el-paso-downtown-arena-duranguito-buildings-whats-next/

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