El Paso: BIG CITY Tiny Skyline! (Houston, Dallas: apartment complex, lease, hotel)

[katzpaw]

Impressive skylines are driven by a demand for office space. El Paso is still largely a blue collar town with few head offices or regional offices. Midland's skyline was built to house oil & gas offices and vacancies jumped when the boom ended - some buildings are vacant and others have been torn down. El Paso isn't a boom & bust town & that has worked to our advantage with housing prices holding better than in other parts of the country. Also land is relatively cheap and the city has room to expand - so there is less incentive or pressure to build up.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by katzpaw

Impressive skylines are driven by a demand for office space. El Paso is still largely a blue collar town with few head offices or regional offices. Midland's skyline was built to house oil & gas offices and vacancies jumped when the boom ended - some buildings are vacant and others have been torn down. El Paso isn't a boom & bust town & that has worked to our advantage with housing prices holding better than in other parts of the country. Also land is relatively cheap and the city has room to expand - so there is less incentive or pressure to build up.

..... doesn't just have to be office space. Just look at Vancouver.

[tigreamp]

I am very pleased to see this topic come up by Ms Kitty, i pay a lot of attention to city skylines, and have always wondered weather or not el paso's would improve significantly, i hope to be kept up to date on all the latest downtown development.

also i wanted to point out that every skyline picture of el paso is grossly unflattering, its common to see pics of our skyline taken from scenic drive or some elevated area that dwarfs the size and density, il post some pics up soon of what it looks like driving westbound on i-10, which really displays a fairly nice perspective.

anyone notice this?

[katzpaw]

Vancouver is on a peninsula jammed in between ocean and mountains. Land is scarce and there is nowhere to go but up. In Vancouver high rise office came first followed by high rise residential and people wanting to be close to work.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by katzpaw

Vancouver is on a peninsula jammed in between ocean and mountains. Land is scarce and there is nowhere to go but up. In Vancouver high rise office came first followed by high rise residential and people wanting to be close to work.

And?

Even Austin is starting to build more high-rise condos and Fort Worth has plans in the works to explode with high-rise residential within the next 5-20 years. Neither one of these cities are anywhere near any oceans or mountains.

The point is, it's not just office demands that drives new skyscrapers. Whether or not El Paso is in high demand for residential buildings, there's another option out there.

[Austinite101]

Originally Posted by JJG

And?

Even Austin is starting to build more high-rise condos and Fort Worth has plans in the works to explode with high-rise residential within the next 5-20 years. Neither one of these cities are anywhere near any oceans or mountains.

The point is, it's not just office demands that drives new skyscrapers. Whether or not El Paso is in high demand for residential buildings, there's another option out there.

I agree. Office towers are not blowing up in Austin like the residential towers are. We are about to break ground on the first office tower (only 33 stories) since the Frost was built almost a decade ago. Residential is where its at. Wish for residential (@ OP).

[Ms Kitty 98]

El Paso is eventually going to run out of space, I drive over to far east El Paso and the Hueco Mountains are right there, and that's already Hudspeth County. So then, while they still build project style apartment housing in El Paso which just adds to more sprawl takes up more room maybe it's time to start aiming for the sky.

Austin has the advantage that it is the state capitol, huge university, high tech industry,and Austin is labeled the Silicon Valley of Texas, oh and they have plenty of water, like lakes and rivers hills and greenery. These are the main elements that attract good paying jobs more people and the place is just bustling with activity. Now comes the Austin skyline, soon it will be up there with Dallas and Houston.

As for El Paso's tall office buildings? all of our home own local banks merged or were bought out by the bigger banks like Chase and Well's Fargo. I notice that several El Paso banks have folded like Coronado State Bank, the Bank of El Paso, Continental Bank, and many more are gone. El Paso needs at the least one tall building no less than forty floors high so we can then look like a real big town.

[SA2EP?]

San Antonio faces the same issues with its skyline and it is home to some very large corporations. Unfortunately, companies like Valero, USAA, Rackspace, and others have chosen the campus style layout...which is probably better for employees anyway.

[katzpaw]

I wouldn't want to be in a downtown dee-luxe apartment in the sky on an El Paso winter evening. You can see and taste the smog.

[SA2EP?]

c'mon katzpaw...its not that bad....if anything...you would rise above it!