City of El Paso to vote on tax relief for transformation of historic Popular Building

The City of El Paso could approve millions of dollars in tax relief to renovate a historic building downtown.

The Popular Building in Downtown El Paso used to be a department store- but for the past few years it has been empty. It was built in 1917 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. You may be able to apply to live there - one developer wants to spend tens of millions of dollars to renovate it, with city help.

It's been vacant now for several years," City Rep. Chris Canales said. "What's being proposed there is a development if still retail on the ground floor and then 99 apartments, a mix of different sizes, and 15% of those will be affordable units.

Canales is the City Council member for Downtown El Paso, touting what would be a transformation of the building, including those affordable units, to encourage people to live in the area. The Council will vote Tuesday on whether to approve $2.4 million in city tax rebates for the building.

"In this case, the incentive would come in a few different forms. That's basically a special fund for capital projects that has to be spent downtown. That would represent about $2.4 million."

Canales pointed to tax breaks for buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places, but also says private third party support would be approved.

"And then the additional $4 million of incentive from the city would be from what we call the impact fund. It's non-tax payer money. So it's money that was created as an economic development fund for projects like this through the franchise agreement with El Paso Electric. So it's actually money that's coming from El Paso electric to invest in these kinds of projects in El Paso."

Canales says the upfront investment from the city will be paid back over the years through increased activity in the area, and will benefit other entities like the school district. He says these types of projects are vital to bring businesses downtown.

"Yeah, I think there is a concept that the businesses follow the residents. And so if we can incentivize the growth of residential development downtown, that's what we need in order to entice grocery stores, restaurants, gyms, right?"

That vote is Tuesday, held at El Paso City Hall, if you want your voice heard on this head over at 9am to the chance to speak during public comment.