Retail is booming in many parts of El Paso, and shopping centers are springing up like mushrooms, especially in the far east and west of the metropolitan area.
“Retail is one of the strongest sectors of the real estate industry today (nationwide),” said Adam Frank, president of River Oaks Properties, El Paso’s largest shopping center developer.
“El Paso is one of the better retail and restaurant markets in the country” for several reasons, including the growth of housing and the availability of land for new centers, he said.
Rebecca Rojas, a retail leasing broker with commercial real estate firm CBRE, said buyers coming across the border from Mexico and the large presence of military families associated with the massive Fort Bliss Army base are also boosting El Paso’s retail market.
El Paso’s retail vacancy rate was about 3.3 percent last year, below the national rate of 5.3 percent, according to a recent report by national commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
A persistent shortage of electrical transformers has delayed the opening of some centers, developers said. River Oaks sidestepped the problem by ordering transformers up to a year in advance of the need, Frank said.
River Oaks dominates Eastlake
River Oaks dominates the shopping center market along the fast-growing retail strip of Eastlake Boulevard in far eastern El Paso County, from Interstate 10, where the massive Amazon distribution center is located, to Darrington Road, where Horizon City begins.
A Home Depot, fast-food outlets and a Residence Inn hotel under construction have also sprung up behind the massive Amazon site. River Oaks is also seeing several other small shopping centers being built in other areas of far east El Paso.
The Eastlake shopping centers are located in the massive Mission Ridge residential development planned by the El Paso Hunt Companies.
With its thriving West Towne Marketplace at Interstate 10 and Paseo del Norte Boulevard, River Oaks is also an important part of the retail scene on the far west side of the city.
Some of the shopping centers to the far west are part of Hunt’s other major planned housing development, Cimarron.
More: Real estate sales in El Paso return to normal after wild pandemic years
Paseo del Este becomes a shopping corridor
The Paseo at Cimarron
7451 Paseo del Norte Blvd., near Resler Drive
The 40,000-square-foot Spanish-style mall is next to the much larger The Canyons at Cimarron mall, which has been open for several years, in a booming shopping district on Paseo del Norte Boulevard in far west El Paso. It cost about $30 million to build, said George Dipp Jr., managing director of Wolf Investment and Development, his El Paso commercial development firm.
“There is still a lot of (retail) demand.” It took less than four months to lease 90 percent of the center, he said.
Previous tenants include: China Town, a new restaurant from the owners of Sunny’s Sushi and Grove Brunch Café; District Coffee Co., a downtown cafe opening a second location; national chain Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ; Café Parisian, a new local restaurant from the owner of Café Italia; Basecamp Fitness, part of a chain of gyms owned by the franchisor of Anytime Fitness; Bunda Fitness, another national gym; DeLuxe Touch Day Spa and Bella Paloma MedSpa, which is moving from its nearby, temporary location.
“I like the Cimarron area, so I’m willing to spend more money there,” Dipp said, as another shopping center is planned in the same area.
He hopes to begin construction in early 2025 on a 100,000-square-foot shopping center that will also include a three-story, 55,000-square-foot office building. Sage at Cimarron will be located at 7255 Paseo del Norte Blvd., about a half-mile from Paseo at Cimarron. It will be built in the same architectural style as Paseo Center, with white stucco walls, wide arches and brown ceramic tile roofs.
More: Industrial developer begins work on 23-acre office park in West El Paso
Old quarter awakens to new life
Trail
9640 Montwood Drive at McRae Boulevard
The 400,000-square-foot shopping center, across from Eastwood High School, is located in a long-established East Side neighborhood. A Lutheran church was demolished to make way for the center, which consists of a collection of white, residential buildings.
Jason Barreras, managing partner of Severo Hughston, his commercial real estate development company, is a graduate of Eastwood High School and wanted to bring restaurants and other businesses to the area.
His focus at Sendero Center is to attract local businesses and largely stay away from national chains, says Rebecca Rojas, a CBRE real estate agent who is in charge of leasing the project.
“He turned down a deal with McDonald’s,” she said. However, Sendero does have some national chains: CareNow Urgent Care Clinic, operated by HCA Healthcare; Cricket Wireless and infrared gym Hotworx are national chains, but the franchises are locally owned, Rojas said.
Other tenants so far: Global Coffee’s second location in El Paso; Rita’s Burrito’s second location; Wing Kings, a growing El Paso restaurant chain operated by the owners of local chain Union Draft House, which wanted to locate there until opposition arose because the bar/restaurant is so close to Eastwood High; and Capone’s Barbershop. A local entertainment center has signed a lease, but no details have been announced yet, Rojas said.
About 70 percent of the center has been rented so far, Rojas said on August 15.
More McRae centers in the works
Barreras has other plans for the Eastwood area.
He purchased two buildings vacated by the Ysleta School District at 1235 and 1301 McRae Blvd., next to Ysleta’s headquarters, which he plans to convert into a small shopping center and a freestanding building that could possibly house a cafe, Rojas said.
Barreras also renovated the 250,000-square-foot Five Points Plaza Shopping Center at 2900 Pershing Drive in the revitalized Five Points neighborhood of Central El Paso last year. Mora Mia, a popular Mexican restaurant in East El Paso, plans to open its second location at the center, which was vacated for the renovation.
Retail in Eastlake is booming
“We have developed seven shopping centers at Eastlake valued at over $100 million,” said River Oaks President Frank.
This began with the large Eastlake Marketplace, which has been open for several years, and the adjacent Eastlake Commons at Interstate 10 and Eastlake, which is home to mostly national chain stores and restaurants. Cinemark is building a large movie theater/entertainment complex on its own property on the edge of Eastlake Marketplace.
Here’s a look at River Oaks’ newest centers at Eastlake:
The market in Darrington
Eastlake Boulevard and Darrington Road
A 60,000-square-foot Albertsons supermarket, scheduled to open in early November, will be the focal point of the 110,000-square-foot center under construction on the border of Horizon City.
Other tenants so far: Nusenda Credit Union’s first new branch building in El Paso, McDonald’s, Circle K and Heartland Dental, a national dental chain, will be built on lots on the outskirts of downtown; national chains Buffalo Wild Wings, Earl of Sandwich and Twisted Sugar
Falkendorf
12900 Eastlake Blvd., corner of Peyton Drive
The 45,000-square-foot center was completed in February and is located across the street from the building where the Hospitals of Providence plans to build a medical office building and, later, a hospital.
Previous tenants: Starbucks and the second location of local Better Days Bar & Grill are open; El Paso restaurant chains Buen Dia, Wing Kings and Verde Salad Co. will be housed in buildings on pod lots in the middle of the center’s parking lot; Thai Sol, a local restaurant; national restaurant chain Teriyaki Madness; and Let’s Golf, a new indoor golf facility and restaurant in El Paso.
Eastlake Square
13649 Eastlake Blvd., near Darrington Road
The traditional 19,200-unit shopping center is located across from the massive The Retreat at Eastlake Apartments, currently under construction.
Previous tenants: Global Coffee, the third location of a coffee shop in El Paso; second location for the Yamagucchi Ramen Bar restaurant in El Paso; Tres Tortilla Supermarket, a new Mexican bakery and restaurant in El Paso that Frank said will also sell products from Mexico; and national franchises Teapioca Lounge, Pizza Hut and Carl’s Jr.
Eastlake Square is adjacent to the large and nearly full Eastlake Promenade Center, whose major tenants include a Union Draft House opening in late 2022, as well as Dunkin’ Donuts and Boozy Tacos. It was built by young developer Chris Malooly Jr.’s EPX Construction Partners.
Vic Kolenc can be reached at 915-546-6421; [email protected]; @vickolenc on Twitternow known as X.
