July 27, 2018 • Local News
Downtown El Paso's Blue Flame Building gutted and ready for renovation
The 18-story Blue Flame Building has been gutted and construction is to begin this month on remaking the former headquarters of El Paso Natural Gas into low-income apartments and offices.
Plans for the renovation project have changed since the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso had the renovation launch ceremony nine months ago.
The building will now have leased office spaces on the 14th, 15th, and 16th floors instead of 30 market-rate apartments, Gerald Cichon, Chief executive officer of the El Paso Housing Authority, which is doing the project, said from the building's rooftop on a sweltering, 100-degree day.
Cichon led a media tour Friday of the mostly gutted building located at 304 Texas Ave., and Stanton Street in Downtown.
The 64-year-old building will still have 120 low-income apartments and ground-floor retail space.
The project price tag has risen to $50 million from the announced $40 million cost when the launch ceremony was held in October.
The renovation is scheduled to be completed by Jan. 1, 2020.
The Texas Historical Commission required the housing authority to keep the 16th floor intact as much as possible. That's where El Paso Natural Gas' executive suites were located. The original dark-wood doors, hung cabinets built into one wall, the brick walls, and the wood-paneled office of the company's president will remain in place.
Since the 16th floor — which is the top, occupied floor — could no longer be market-rate apartments, it didn't make sense to put market-rate apartments on the 14th and 15th floors as originally planned, said Javier Camacho, spokesman for the housing agency.
Cichon said the building's location near the county and federal courthouses should help to lease the office space. He's asked city and county officials if they'd be interested in the office space. Even the Housing Authority is looking at the possibility of moving its offices to the building, he said.
A restaurant and bar may possibly be added to a balcony wrapping around the entire 17th floor, said Kevin Wilson, vice president of development for Franklin Development Co., of San Antonio, which is the project developer.
Sundt Construction, based in the Phoenix area, is the contractor.
Rooftop blue flame to get remake
The building's iconic, 21-foot, steel and plexiglass flame, which was lit in blue most of the time, and changed colors with changing weather conditions, will remain, Cichon said, pointing to the flame towering over him on the building's roof.
But it will be refurbished with LED lights replacing the current fluorescent tubes inside the steel flame shell, and the lights will be computerized, he said.
The project is being financed with $32 million worth of state and federal tax credits, including tax credits for historical building renovations, and a loan, Cichon said.
The renovation is part of the housing agency's ongoing Rental Assistance Demonstration Program -- a $1.3 billion, multiyear program to rebuild more than 30 public housing complexes with 6,400 housing units.
The Blue Flame Building has been vacant for years. It was built in 1954 for El Paso Natural Gas' headquarters. But the company moved its headquarters to Houston in 1996 and then later moved the remainder of its employees to a regional office in Colorado.
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