The decision to make the Union Depot site the future home of the long-stalled multipurpose center was postponed for four weeks on Tuesday so that the city could get community input before making a decision.
The City Council vote was unanimous.
“I think we have learned from past experiences that when the public is not included, then this project becomes mired in controversy and I think it’s incredibly important to include the public,” city Rep. Cassandra Hernandez said in support of city Rep. Isabel Salcido’s motion to postpone the vote.
The proposed new site is located blocks away from the former choice for the controversial Downtown arena in the Duranguito neighborhood of Union Plaza. The multipurpose performing arts and entertainment center is the last signature bond project approved by voters in 2012 that has yet to break ground.
The proposed plan would leave the historic train depot in place and allow for adaptive reuse of the facility, though it also has to remain a train station because of investment by the Federal Transit Administration. The passenger station, built in 1905, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Mayor Oscar Leeser said the $180 million project approved by voters in 2012 was never budgeted properly and building what the voters approved was never feasible.
“You look at a wish list, 14,000 seat capacity, but yet we are not realistic with a $180 million budget – even back in 2012,” Leeser said.
The city has about $162 million remaining in its budget for the Downtown arena. The original funding approved by voters was $180 million. The city has spent bond funds on consulting, engineering and other costs such as prior land acquisition and appraisals.
The new plans for the multipurpose center, which veer away from a large arena-style facility initially envisioned by prior city leaders, now call for an indoor-outdoor hybrid venue with capacity for 4,000 indoor and 4,000 outdoor seats, according to city documents.
City Rep. Art Fierro said the city deserves a 14,000-seat arena, but he is not willing to spend more than what voters approved.
“I ran to be fiscally conservative and take care of the taxpayers’ dollars and I’m not prepared to go $1 over,” Fierro said.
The change in plans for a smaller venue drew criticism from local leaders.
“Ten years ago the community envisioned a facility with (a) minimum of 14,000 seats. Anything less is like flushing money down the toilet, which you guys have been good at frankly,” former City Manager Joyce Wilson said in a letter written to the City Council.
Former Mayor John Cook and former city Rep. Steve Ortega also sent a letter to the council.
“The project, as envisioned, would accommodate 21st century concerts such as Taylor Swift, rodeos, sporting events such as the NCAA Basketball Tournament first round matchups and allow El Paso to compete for professional teams in the sports of basketball and hockey,” the letter by Cook and Ortega said.
They also said the original project was part of a strategy to make El Paso more competitive for regional and national conventions.
“We understand the funds currently allocated do not allow for the building of the type of facility befitting of the country’s 22nd largest city – largely because of outside efforts to stymie the project – but we urge you to get creative, and more importantly, be ambitious,” Ortega and Cook said.
Wilson, who served as city manager when the 2012 quality of life bond was developed, said the project as proposed will be a waste of money.
“This latest idea for a performance center is a joke,” Wilson said. “It will net nothing in terms of a new venue. The site stinks. It’s isolated and an environmental hazard.”
The preliminary environmental site assessment determined that the land, if developed, will need to be remediated from diesel and gasoline contamination from leaking petroleum storage tank releases discovered in 1990, said Daniela Quesada, city architect.
She said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality allowed the cases to be closed in 2009, knowing the pollution sources were left in place, but stable. There are five 40,000-gallon fuel tanks, one of which is still in use, that would have to be removed as part of the remediation. Most of the hydrocarbon pollution plume beneath the site would remain.
Quesada estimated cleaning the land could cost from $600,000 to $2.7 million, depending on factors such as the size and scope of the project.
The multipurpose center project had been embroiled in controversy over the previous site in the Duranguito neighborhood in the Union Plaza area of Downtown El Paso since it was chosen in 2016. Litigation started in 2017 and continued until last year, when the city scrapped the site for the project and agreed to end the lawsuits.
In December City Council voted to ease the architectural design and building guidelines for future development of the Union Plaza area that includes the Union Depot.
The city on Feb. 5 sought a $50,000 grant from the Texas Historical Trust Fund to restore and repair 16 windows in the depot’s rotunda, as well as 116 office windows in the building.
The city will remain in its contract with Amtrak, which provides train service several days a week from the depot. The proposal says the city “may” continue a contract with Texas Tech University, whose El Paso architecture school is housed in Union Depot, but the two other contracts with First Transit, Inc., and Greyhound will be terminated.
“We would not be looking to terminate that lease agreement (with Amtrak), nor would we be looking to terminate the lease agreement with Texas Tech as they occupy space within the historic building and that would not be impacting the development of the MPC,” Quesada said.
The future of the Texas Tech School of Architecture in Downtown El Paso could be jeopardized, said Joe Gudenrath, executive director of the Downtown Management District, in an opinion piece published by El Paso Matters.
“Even if Texas Tech is allowed to stay within the Union Depot, this project will limit their ability to grow and/or force the school to seek alternative locations,” Gudenrath said.
Disclosure: Former City Manager Joyce Wilson and former city Rep. Steve Ortega are financial supporters of El Paso Matters. Financial supporters play no role in El Paso Matters’ journalism. The news organization’s policy on editorial independence can be found here.
