Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > El Paso
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 11-28-2007, 12:13 PM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
879 posts, read 3,037,425 times
Reputation: 883

Advertisements

Has anyone noticed how our billionaire, Paul Foster is buying up lots of historic buildings downtown? I think our downtown is getting ready to get some life into it. A lot of people are holding out on putting new stuff in downtown until the redevelopment plan starts taking place. The buying up of downtown buildings to get them ready for the redevelopment has already begun.

Foster and his associates have so far purchased the Anson Mills Building (1911), Blue Flame Building (1954), Luther Building (1914), Centre Building (1929), and a small parking lot in downtown. The plans now are to move Western Refinery's headquarters to the Centre Building. With Foster buying up these buildings, they are signs that he is expecting big things out of downtown El Paso. He is a huge supporter of El Paso's downtown redevelopment plan, so that is great news.

Foster also bought the old Farah factory building that is located next Cielo Vista Mall, and I remember reading how he has big plans for that property as well.

Foster in the future will be considered our savior IMO, he donated $50 million to our future medical school, he also donated $3 million along with his Western Refinery Vice President Jeff Stevens, who donated another $3 million to help UTEP build a new state of the art basketball practice facility. Foster was also a huge contributer to renovate the Plaza... maybe we should change our name to Fostertown?

Some articles:
The El Pasoan | Showcasing The Vibrant Businesses, Culture, & People of Downtown El Paso
http://www.elpasoinc.com/showArticle.asp?articleId=1911 (broken link)
http://www.elpasoinc.com/showArticle.asp?articleId=500 (broken link)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-28-2007, 12:21 PM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
5,080 posts, read 9,954,930 times
Reputation: 1105
Thats cool.. I hope he keeps the blue flame, and El Paso Icon for sure downtown.

if you find any info on the Farrah plans please post it here so we all can get excited about it.

Glad to hear about Downtown. Hope he uses one building to build nice loft or condo developments.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-28-2007, 12:25 PM
 
2,625 posts, read 11,218,834 times
Reputation: 1890
wow chuco, thanks alot for the informative articles, thats great news for el paso and all el pasoans, im really looking forward to the downtown revitilization project, i have alot of old memories of downtown, when i was little, their was no reason to go anywhere else.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-28-2007, 02:10 PM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
421 posts, read 2,156,549 times
Reputation: 155
The Borderplex community trust which is buying up downtown property in alignment with the PDNG downtown plan has acquired (or in the process of) several buildings too. Have you seen the stretch of el paso street just south of the camino real? I believe they call it paseo de las luces.. several buildings are in the process of rehab. The merrick building will finally have some company. That building was beautifully renovated not too long ago.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-28-2007, 03:02 PM
Status: "We need America back!" (set 2 days ago)
 
Location: Suburban Dallas
52,688 posts, read 47,955,803 times
Reputation: 33845
Default A Time To Rebuild

Well, it's a start. You have to start somewhere, and that would be a good place to begin. It looks like Foster is willing to give to make it work. You want to have a downtown that everybody wants to go to and be a part of or live in. I can't wait to see more in EP!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-29-2007, 10:49 PM
 
639 posts, read 1,043,756 times
Reputation: 141
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muhnay View Post
Thats cool.. I hope he keeps the blue flame, and El Paso Icon for sure downtown.

if you find any info on the Farrah plans please post it here so we all can get excited about it.

Glad to hear about Downtown. Hope he uses one building to build nice loft or condo developments.
Thats exactly what was one of my thoughts, what will become of the Blue Flame icon?
I hope he leaves it up there but he does have major renovations plans for the Blue Flame Building and the restoration of the Mills building back to the way it use to look when Henry Trost designed it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-05-2007, 02:15 AM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
879 posts, read 3,037,425 times
Reputation: 883
Quote:
Originally Posted by holmes View Post
The Borderplex community trust which is buying up downtown property in alignment with the PDNG downtown plan has acquired (or in the process of) several buildings too. Have you seen the stretch of el paso street just south of the camino real? I believe they call it paseo de las luces.. several buildings are in the process of rehab. The merrick building will finally have some company. That building was beautifully renovated not too long ago.
That's right Holmes, I forgot about the Borderplex Community, these guys just bought one of my favorite buildings in downtown: The Bassett Tower. So now they have the Chase Building, Bassett Tower, and one of the parking garages downtown.
The downtown redevelopment has already started and will be going into full effect real soon. I never thought it would be moving so fast behind the scenes, yet some of it is already starting to happen. These buildings and properties needed to be bought up for one goal, and that was for our downtown redevelopment. Awesome!
El Paso Times - 15-story edifice latest purchase by Borderplex

http://k53.pbase.com/g3/76/634276/2/55873370.2006_0208DowntownBassettTower065b.jpg (broken link)
Bassett Tower - 15 stories (built in 1930)

Bassett Tower ||| El Paso ||| Texas

Last edited by Chuco; 12-05-2007 at 02:23 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-05-2007, 04:20 AM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
5,080 posts, read 9,954,930 times
Reputation: 1105
I wish I could explore that building, and see whats on them upper levels. The Basset Tower is also my favorite building downtown. I heard it was gonna be part offices, part apartments and part business on the lower 2 floors. Do you know if thats true?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-05-2007, 09:01 AM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
421 posts, read 2,156,549 times
Reputation: 155
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuco View Post
That's right Holmes, I forgot about the Borderplex Community, these guys just bought one of my favorite buildings in downtown: The Bassett Tower. So now they have the Chase Building, Bassett Tower, and one of the parking garages downtown.
The downtown redevelopment has already started and will be going into full effect real soon. I never thought it would be moving so fast behind the scenes, yet some of it is already starting to happen. These buildings and properties needed to be bought up for one goal, and that was for our downtown redevelopment. Awesome!
El Paso Times - 15-story edifice latest purchase by Borderplex

Bassett Tower - 15 stories (built in 1930)

Bassett Tower ||| El Paso ||| Texas
Yep, actually in that article they mention those properties on el paso st I was talking about too. A beautiful italianate victorian building which has already been fixed up and another further up the street is in the process of rehab. Very promising. I've always thought this stretch of street is one of the cooler parts of downtown, architecturally speaking. Good to see it's finally getting some love.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-05-2007, 10:54 AM
 
2,625 posts, read 11,218,834 times
Reputation: 1890
i also noticed they already "gutted" the old international hotel, does anybody have any pics of how its going to end up looking after they remodel it, my mom tells me they used to have a nightclub at the very top, i beleive it was "view at the top" that section of downtown is looking good too, with the museums, the library, etc etc.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > El Paso

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:03 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top