It seems that Texas Tech will open a branch of their school of architecture in El Paso. That seems good to me.
They need a building. The City wants to lease them 16,587 square feet in the Union Depot building. Sounds good.
You can read about the proposed lease here.
The lease is for 25 years for $1 per year! I wrote in Maybe we should bear the tax burden for the entire state about how the city gave the Albert Fall mansion away on a $1 lease to Texas Tech.
Keep on giving
A 25 year lease for office space is a long lease. Since our council seems to want to exceed our expectations in any way they can they are offering not one, but two 25 year extensions as part of the lease.
That gives the space away for 75 years!
I am happy to see the school moving here. I just don’t understand why local taxpayers have to pay for a state function.
Maybe downtown property is worthless.
What about UTEP? Are they entitled to our subsidies also?
We need someone at city hall that understands negotiating. Maybe we could have gotten $2 a foot, at least something.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
This lease is worse than you might imagine. We, the taxpayers, are required to foot the bill for ALL utilities, including gas, electric, water, etc. That building is probably not on the tax rolls, but if it is, Tech should be paying its pro rata portion of the property taxes.
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I have a business I want to start. Does anyone know how I get the City to give me free space? I will even gladly pay the square footage rate being paid by Mountainstar Sports. Who do I have to pay?
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The Tech school of architecture reportedly talked to private sector property owners about leasing space or buying their own building. By giving Tech free space, the City also took money out of the pocket of a commercial property owner, which means less money flowing into the local economy.
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and with the excellent college of engineering at utep, why hadn’t it established a school of archtecture? was natalicio asleep at the wheel, or is she just consumed with border security above all else, or is texas tech becoming the college of choice for the locals who don’t want to leave ep for their higher education?
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You know, l keep thinking that this kind of nonsense wouldn’t have happened a decade ago. At least l don’t recall anything like this happening back then. Has everyone in this town gone completely bat-crap crazy? Speaking of which, what a shame that former Mayor Caballero would give $ to that pantload Ortega. Even though Cabs constantly talked about revitalization “the vision,” l never would have thought that he would support doing it in such an irresponsible, careless, fiscally destructive sort of way. l’m just glad that he didn’t govern like this back in the day.
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wow – i thought it was common knowledge that caballero was responsible for bringing bill sanders and the pdng to the table – ”
Cardwell: Myrna called me one day and asked me to meet with her and then-Mayor Caballero. Ray was very interested in improving Downtown, if you remember. So we met and we talked about it. And I remember Gilbert was there. We started talking and we realized we we’re a bunch of dummies when it comes to what makes a great Downtown. Well, I’ve known Bill Sanders over the years, and I asked him to come down and meet with us, and he did. Caballero went through the deal with him, and the bottom line was Bill said, ‘If all you’re going to do is Downtown, I don’t have an interest. If you really want this project to work, we need to take a regional approach.’ Also, at that time Woody Hunt had started the Leadership Research Council. And so we all joined together under Myrna’s guidance. The Paso Del Norte name was recommended by a member out of Juarez; it was a much better name than what we were talking about.”
http://boboland-cronicas.us/killingthebarrio.html‘
scroll down to “killing the barrio”
the quote is from the El Paso Inc.
http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/article_b2f087aa-c453-5b68-8912-1fd71727998b.html
again, scroll well down into the article, which is fascinating.
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So how much is the City paying to move Sun Metro to Montana and what is the cost of that building?
The anointed one for Mayor is taking credit for this brilliant idea. Oh Goodie, Goodie this gift will help to rebuild downtown El Paso. WHY DOESN’T KVIA ASK THESE QUESTIONS? Why is the press walking hand in hand with this nonsence? Why no questions? The public is getting the fuzzzy end of the lolly pop. I would think the AG of the state of TX might have a say in giving away public property even if it is to the state.MOTHER SUPERIOR
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According to the El Paso Times, “The El Paso City Council claimed another victory for Downtown revitalization on Tuesday.”
This looks like a campaign promo piece for Steve Ortega, who was reportedly “credited with the idea” and had been working on this deal since 2011. If this deal has been in the works for two years, the timing of the announcement also looks like the city council and city manager also wanted it to give Ortega a boost in the current mayoral election.
The article goes on to say that the $1 lease per year on the building is “a standard rate for nonprofit organizations, according to city officials”. This is the first I have ever heard of a standard rate for nonprofit rental rates. These unnamed ** note that they are unnamed ** officials are trying to justify after the fact their leasing of both the Fall Mansion and the Depot to Texas Tech for $1 each. There are a number of local nonprofits who would probably like to know how to get a piece of this free rent action. They can start by putting a prominent local banker and downtown redevelopment advocate on their board.
I found this Times article very disappointing. It makes me question the Times’ motives and credibility. This article, coupled with yesterday’s article intended to paint other candidates as criminals, is a little too obvious. Does the Times staff truly think we’re all naive or do they just not care?
For the full article, go to the Times website http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_23194366/college-architecture-gets-space-at-union-depot?source=rss_viewed
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