El Paso- TX
Over 650 employees have been relocated over various locations in the Downtown area in order to pave the way for the construction of the $64 million dollar baseball stadium.
Over 650 employees have been relocated over various locations in the Downtown area in order to pave the way for the construction of the $64 million dollar baseball stadium.
The demolition of City Hall was a result of the approval by City Council to construct a new baseball stadium after MountainStar Sports Group secured the purchase of the Tucson Padres, a Triple-A baseball team and a minor league of the Pacific Coast League.
In an interview with El Paso Inc. Paul L Foster stated
that executives from the Pacific Coast League and Minor League Baseball said “that they
believed we needed a new stadium and that they would prefer for it to be in the
Downtown area.”
According to Dwight Hall, Director of Baseball Operations
at Pacific Coast, “you can build a better environment in a downtown area.”
“There are a lot of technical requirements, some are recommendations. The purpose of those recommendations are to ensure the success of the team,” Hall added.
In order to look for potential buildings to relocate City Hall into, City Manager Joyce Wilson hired two consulting firms, TVO North America and RJL Real Estate Consultants.
“We brought up the deal to them, us and RJL…we visited properties downtown that met their options, and they decided where to go,” said Elizabeth Zatanita, asset manager at TVO North America.
TVO North America and RJL Real Estate recommended 15 buildings for the relocation of City Hall.
Ultimately City Hall purchased the El Paso Times building for $9.75 million and the Texas building for $2.4 million.
In addition to purchasing the two buildings the city spend $3 million in renovations for the Times building and $8.5 million in renovations for the Texas building, according to city officials.
“There are a lot of technical requirements, some are recommendations. The purpose of those recommendations are to ensure the success of the team,” Hall added.
In order to look for potential buildings to relocate City Hall into, City Manager Joyce Wilson hired two consulting firms, TVO North America and RJL Real Estate Consultants.
“We brought up the deal to them, us and RJL…we visited properties downtown that met their options, and they decided where to go,” said Elizabeth Zatanita, asset manager at TVO North America.
TVO North America and RJL Real Estate recommended 15 buildings for the relocation of City Hall.
Ultimately City Hall purchased the El Paso Times building for $9.75 million and the Texas building for $2.4 million.
In addition to purchasing the two buildings the city spend $3 million in renovations for the Times building and $8.5 million in renovations for the Texas building, according to city officials.
The city spend an additional $11.5 million to renovate
the Mulligan building.
The Mulligan building, then known as the Luther building, had been considered as a potential purchase by the city for $17.4 million as part of the relocation plan before it was donated to the city by Paul L. Foster.
The Mulligan building, then known as the Luther building, had been considered as a potential purchase by the city for $17.4 million as part of the relocation plan before it was donated to the city by Paul L. Foster.
The trio of buildings represent an effort by the city to create a ped-shed layout.
According to city documents ped-shed is short for pedestrian-shed and it is the “the basic building block of walkable places… Ped-sheds are often defined as the area within a 5-minute walk.”
“The idea is to create a campus approach,” said David Coronado City Plan Program Manager.
The El Paso Times buildings now known as the new City Hall, houses 13 of the 29 City Hall offices.
The Mulligan building and Texas buildings are both still undergoing renovations, and will be known as the Technology Center and the Development center once renovations are completed.
However, the completion of the renovations seems ambiguous. The city website cites Fall 2013 as the opening date for the Technology and Development Centers.
“Eventually they’ll be moving us” said a city employee.
The offices that correspond to the Technology and Development Centers are in temporary locations downtown while they await the completion of the buildings.
The remaining City Hall offices have been permanently placed in different buildings around the downtown area.
“Everybody got split up when the City Hall got torn down,” said a city employee.
The offices have been moved to the O’Rourke Center, The Tillman Center, the Development Center, the Union Plaza Transit Terminal and the Wells Fargo Building.
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