Downtown El Paso housing on verge of taking off

EL PASO – Housing in Downtown El Paso has yet to take off despite the success of a handful of fairly recent Downtown housing projects. Downtown had an estimated 4,571 housing units in 2012. That number has stayed virtually flat for a decade, and it is only a tiny fraction of El Paso’s entire housing market.

Four new apartment projects, now in planning stages, could change that trend.

Artspace has plans to build a $13.9 million apartment project for artists in a vacant lot at Oregon and Missouri. It will have 51 low-income live-work units.

Bearing Development plans to construct a building with about 40 loft-style apartments at 533 W. Franklin. Construction could start early in 2014.

Bearing is also working for a client on possibly putting 27 loft-style apartments inside a four-story building at Overland and Stanton. A Dollar Tree store now on the ground floor would remain.

Lane Gaddy, and a group that last year bought three Downtown buildings for redevelopment, has plans to put 35 to 45 apartments in the top five floors of the seven-story Martin Building at Stanton and Mills.

The almost 100-year-old building has a coffee shop, sweet shop and finance company on the ground floor. Work could begin this summer.

Gaddy believes there is a demand Downtown for an additional 500 to 700 higher-end units targeting young professionals/artists in the next few years.