June 15, 2018 • EPE Related News
El Paso Times: With renovation plan now dead, the Banner Building in Downtown El Paso is for sale
A plan to renovate the 108-year-old Roberts-Banner Building in downtown El Paso has died.
A group led by El Paso businessman Lane Gaddy had planned to turn the vacant, five-story building into modern offices and ground-floor stores and restaurants. It even had secured an agreement with the city for tax rebates and cash payments up to $2.2 million over 15 years to help pay for the project.
But the building, located at 215 N. Mesa St. and Mills Avenue, across the street from San Jacinto Plaza, recently was put on the sales market, said El Paso Realtor Juan Uribe, whose company is the listing agent for the property.
"For Sale" signs now hang on the front of the building.
'There is some interest in the building'
Gaddy's group bought the building in summer 2012. It was designed by the late, iconic and prolific El Paso architect Henry Trost.
It was to be the third historic downtown building that Gaddy was to redevelop with different investor groups he assembled.
The other buildings are the 15-story Bassett Tower, also designed by Trost, which was converted into an 89-room Marriott Aloft Hotel that opened May 24; and the seven-story Martin Building, which was renovated and turned into the 40-unit Martin Lofts apartments that opened in 2016. A giant Electricity sign is atop that building because it once housed El Paso Electric's offices.
MORE:Historic meets ultramodern in Bassett Tower reincarnation as Aloft Hotel
"They had a particular tenant that was going to go in there (the Banner Building) and it didn't work out," so, they decided to sell it, Uribe said.
Gaddy is in Europe and was not immediately available for comment. He is chief executive officer of W Silver Recycling, an El Paso metal recycling company. He's passionate about preserving downtown's historic buildings, and his projects have remade a two-block area of downtown.
A restaurant has a lease to open in a former McDonald's location on the ground floor of the Banner Building, Uribe said. That lease will be part of the sale, he said. The name of the restaurant has not been publicly disclosed, he said.
An adjoining Banner Building annex, where the International bar is located, also is owned by Gaddy's group, but is not part of the sale, Uribe said.
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"There is some interest in the building," Uribe said. "We had two offers, but they were not attractive enough."
No sale price has been disclosed. The building is appraised for tax purposes at $640,000 by the El Paso Central Appraisal District.
"We'd like to get someone to buy it and renovate it," Uribe said.
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/el-paso/2018/06/13/downtown-el-paso-historic-banner-building-sale-upgrade-canceled/692473002/?from=global
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