EL PASO, Texas -- This buttoned-down city on the Mexican border feels like a boomtown these days, as entrepreneurs fleeing drug violence in Ciudad Juárez head across the Rio Grande to open hip clubs and hot restaurants here.

The violence in Mexico has provided an unexpected economic boost to El Paso, a city of more than 600,000 residents at the westernmost tip of Texas. The unemployment rate here was 9.8% in September, equal to the national average but far lower than in other border towns such as Brownsville and McAllen.

Cindy Ramos-Davidson, chief executive of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said her staff was swamped with requests from Juárez businesspeople wanting to settle in El Paso. They started more than 200 companies in the 12 months ended July 31, a 40% jump from the same period last year.

"It's the largest migration of wealthy Mexican nationals [to El Paso] since the Mexican Revolution," said Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso city councilman, referring to the decadelong rebellion that began in 1910.

Not all newcomers to El Paso are refugees from violence. Other factors helping to boost the city's economy include a multibillion-dollar expansion of Fort Bliss, a military base that is attracting thousands of soldiers and aiding the local building industry, said Bill Gilmer, a senior economist at the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.