360-unit Downtown apartment/hotel high-rise proposed at site of City Hall parking lot

The developers who are renovating the former Camino Real Hotel have won the right to build a proposed, 360-unit luxury apartment and hotel project on the City Hall parking lot in Downtown El Paso.

On Tuesday, the El Paso City Council is scheduled to vote whether to accept the winning proposal from Miami-based Meyers Group Development and El Paso-based Two Sabes.

The companies, through a joint venture, are proposing to build a high-rise building with 180 luxury apartments, 180 hotel units, 35,000 square-feet of street-level retail spaces, and an 1,104-space parking garage, including 700 spaces that would be owned by the city, according to the proposal submitted to the city last year.

The building and parking garage would be located on the 1.5-acre City Hall parking lot at Mills Avenue and Kansas Street, sandwiched between City Hall and Hotel Indigo.

Officials with the Meyers Group were not immediately available Monday to provide more details about the proposed project.

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A city committee evaluated four qualified proposals and recommended the city select the Meyers Group/Two Sabes proposal, according to a city document. A fifth proposal was not accepted because city officials determined it did not meet all city requirements.

A rendering included with the winning proposal shows it would be a high-rise building with an ultramodern design. But it does not specify the number of floors, or the projected cost.

Several pages of the joint venture's proposal were blacked out from public view because of the competitive nature of the proposal, said Israel Irrobali, a spokesman for the city Economic and International Development Department, which oversaw the proposal process.

If City Council approves the winning proposal, an interim agreement would be made with the developers to do studies needed to help determine the cost of the project. After that, city officials will determine what type of partnership agreement would be formed with the developers, Irrobali said.

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Another Meyers Group/Sabes Two joint venture is in the midst of a $70 million renovation of the former Camino Real Hotel at 101 S. El Paso St., in Downtown. The Meyers Group, a Miami real estate development company with El Paso family ties bought, the hotel late last year, and then secured $32 million in city and state tax subsidies, and city grants to help pay for the renovation.

The renovated and renamed Hotel Paso Del Norte is to become a franchised Marriott Autograph Collection Hotel.

The Meyers Group, headed by Stuart Meyers, also has proposed building two, 20-story, luxury apartment buildings on an empty, 4-acre lot at 201 Shadow Mountain Drive in West El Paso. Plans for that project have changed several times, and Meyers Group officials have not provided updated, public information in recent months. No construction date has been set for that project.

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Two Sabes is headed by Richard Aguilar, whose EPT Land Communities is developing the huge Montecillo Smart Growth community between Mesa Street and Interstate 10 in West El Paso.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

Make Plans

What: El Paso City Council meeting.

When: 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Where: Council Chambers, City Hall, 300 N. Campbell

Watch online at: elpasotexas.gov/videos