El Paso cash registers ready to ring — loudly

​​​​​EL PASO – The local retail sector is "knocking on the doors of being a $12 billion-a-year enterprise," says an economist at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Tom Fullerton with UTEP said ​growth in retail sales in El Paso is projected to continue despite economic headwinds such as troop reductions at Fort Bliss and the falling peso, which has curbed the purchasing power of Mexican nationals who shop in El Paso.

He said incomes there are projected to grow and unemployment to continue to fall.

Retail sales in El Paso County are forecast to grow 4.8 percent this year and 5.1 percent next year, reaching $12.5 billion by the end of 2016, according to the most recent Borderplex Economic Outlook published by UTEP.

Among local retail highlights are River Oaks Properties’ plans to build two million sf of retail space by 2020. That company’s competitor, Mimco, also has new shopping centers under construction.

This year, Mimco completed two 100,000-sf shopping centers, one in Horizon City just east of El Paso and one on the west side at Upper Valley and Artcraft.