Vic Kolenc

El Paso Times

El Paso native Hamilton Peck has built four apartment complexes in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

But doing them wasn’t easy because city governments were making it difficult to do rezoning for the projects, he said.

So, he thought, “Why not take my money and come to El Paso.”

The result is the planned, 216-unit North Loop Apartments, on 8.4 acres of vacant, infill land on North Loop Drive, near Loop 375. It's next to the Feather Lake wildlife sanctuary and near Del Valle High School.

“I drove around and this area didn’t have any big (apartment) complexes, and I saw this land,” he said at a ground-breaking ceremony this week for the $15 million project.

The apartments are expected to be completed by August 2017, he said.

The 8.4 acres on North Loop had to be rezoned for the apartments project because it was zoned for agricultural use, Peck said.

“The City Plan Commission are rock stars. They understand what you need to make this process easy,” he said

City Rep. Claudia Ordaz said this is the type of project is needed in El Paso to help grow its tax base.

“A lot of (the property tax) burden falls on homeowners. Investments like this help,” she said at the Aug. 3 ground-breaking ceremony.

City Council in June approved giving the project $309,257 in permit fee waivers, and sales and property tax rebates over a five-year period to help Peck pay for the project.

Peck said he received a $12 million loan for the project from First National Bank, which on Aug. 1 became part of WestStar Bank under a merger announced last year. He'll pay the remaining costs himself, he said.

Eugenio “Pacelli” Mesta, president of Exigo Architects, an El Paso architecural firm specializing In infill apartment projects, said several three-story apartment buildings will be clustered around a 2-acre park with a pond and picnic areas.

That feature is what makes the development a bit different from other similar apartment complexes, he said.

Most of the infill projects Exigo has designed are in the Downtown El Paso area, but Peck called Mesta out of the blue and asked him to do the project, Mesta said.

Most of the apartments will be 2 bedrooms, with washer and dryers, free cable and Internet service, for a monthly rent of about $900, Peck said.

It’s affordable housing that’s needed in the Lower Valley, he said.

Peck, 44, grew up in Northeast El Paso and graduated from Irvin High School. He's spent the last 15 years building three businesses in Dallas: real estate development, home mortgage lending (Hamilton Cash Investments), and technology installation (Hamilton Group).

He left El Paso years ago to pursue his business dreams, but he keeps an East Side home to stay in while doing mortgage lending in El Paso, he said.

His wife is from Chihuahua City, and two of his sisters live in El Paso, he said.

“I love El Paso. It’s such a diverse town,” Peck said.

“I expect to do other (apartment) projects in El Paso,” he said. “Next, I want to do luxury apartments with retail on the bottom floors.”

More information: hamiltoncash.com; hamiltongrouptx.com

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