The new Northgate Transfer Center is up and running in Northeast El Paso, but what happened to the development that was supposed to go up around it?
Those who use the transit center at Metro 31 are getting ancy as to when construction on the rest of the project is expected to continue, “I have to go over there to McDonalds sometimes or to the gas station just to get a water and I’m like, why can’t there just be something close,” bus rider Israel Olague told KTSM.
The City explained the Northgate project has three phases.
The first being the transit center which opened about a year ago. The second phase will be building 87 elderly housing units. Construction is expected to start the second quarter of this year, and be completed by November 2020.
The final phase is lifting 20 acres of land from the floodplain for mixed use such as shopping, living and restaurants. However, there is no estimated timeline for that phase.
“We’re going to take it one section at a time you know obviously we have to do some engineering,” Assistant Director of Economic Development Eddie Garcia explained, “We have to get the fill in and bring that in so that’s going to take some time and then once we finish that, we will be able to look for some tenants because the tenants are going to expect it to be out of the floodplain.”
The City told KTSM about a year ago that the floodplain problem was supposed to be fixed by this year, but as of right now, only 2.4 acres of the land has been lifted for phase two.
The wait may be long, but some said that it will be worth it.
“I know it’s going to be a long time but if they do add something here that’d be great, like a playground or food court,” Michael Richmond who lives in the Northeast shared, “That’d be perfect for anyone that comes because maybe you’d see a whole lot more people here, some apartments are right there so it’d be great, it’d be great.”
