Making Progress At Union Plaza

In 1996, the city of El Paso initiated a major Downtown Improvement Program that promised to revamp and revitalize the area. Downtown had, over the years, become underappreciated and underwhelming, making the bustling streets and booming businesses that once made up the thriving hub of our community a thing of the past. So when the Improvement Program was proposed and talk of new cultural facilities and area expansion began to circulate through town, El Pasoans grew eager to see improvements.

Union Plaza, a nineteen-block district of Downtown which includes the illustrious Union Depot, was a prime candidate for revival. From the late-1800s through the mid-1900s, the Borderland experienced a surge of railroad passengers with the arrival of Southern Pacific Railroad. After five other railroad lines followed suit and the number of passengers continued to increase, the Union Depot was erected in Union Plaza to accommodate the growing area. Soon, the depot emerged as a leading railroad center in the US, attracting hotels, restaurants, saloons and retailers to the immediate neighborhood. The high level of traffic in Union Depot trickled into the greater Downtown, contributing a large deal to the success of the area at the turn of the century. The region enjoyed great prosperity until the end of World War II, when soldiers no longer filled 30 trains each day and passenger traffic at Union Depot fell into decline. Similarly, traffic at nearby shops, restaurants and hotels dropped and in 1974, Union Depot ceased operation with the exception of limited Amtrak service.

Clearly, the revival of Union Plaza was a central and necessary element in the Downtown Improvement Program. The undertaking was dubbed the Union Plaza Redevelopment Program and its mission was two-fold: to revitalize the area and establish the city’s first and only mixed-use district, allowing residential and commercial edifices to co-exist within the same boundaries. This plan, the City hoped, would encourage growth in the area and infuse Union Plaza with the tremendous energy it had lost years earlier.

And while the area did see some improvement like the renovation of a few apartment buildings and the opening up of a handful of nightclubs, larger endeavors like the Paso del Norte Group’s proposed stadium never came
to fruition. El Pasoans, for the most part, never saw the larger plan executed and for years, local entrepreneurs who opened the neighborhood clubs spearheaded the little development Union Plaza did see.

Recently, however, activity in Union Plaza has begun to gather momentum and the Place at Union Plaza, a 10,000 square-foot warehouse located on Downtown’s Durango Street, has become a nighttime hotspot for fun-loving El Pasoans. Hosting restaurants, clubs and bars like 1914 Lounge, Vanilla Bar and Shadow Lounge, the area began to generate a buzz almost three years ago. Since then, several other business have cropped up around the neighborhood, including recent Place addition Brick and Mortar, an upscale restaurant and bar and Creative Kids’ oLo Gallery, a popular non-profit organization which has benefited hundreds of underprivileged children in the community.

Octavio Gomez, owner of the Place at Union Plaza, agrees that the area has been given new life after the opening of the businesses. And despite the city’s slow-moving plan to revitalize the Union Plaza, the district has been invigorated through the efforts of local business owners like him. “The raw buildings [had] been neglected for so many years, I saw potential to develop an entertainment area in Downtown like those in other cities,” he says. “It brought a pulse to the dead El Paso Downtown and because of the success of the area; it has attracted more businesses to Union Plaza and to the general Downtown area.”

Perhaps due to the neighborhood’s success, the City of El Paso once again took notice of the region. The Union Plaza Redevelopment Program appears to be in full-swing as major area developments and improvements are underway. Soon, the city of El Paso will see a rise in Union Depot and memories of the area’s prosperous past will come to life.

Most recently, the City announced plans to move the existing Sun Metro headquarters to Union Plaza and turn the facility an international station for road carriers, Greyhound buses and other bus companies. The City plans to construct a top-of-the-line central station for passengers traveling in and out of El Paso, complete with a temperature-controlled waiting area.In the future, the City also plans to implement
a mass transit, light rail or bus rapid transit system that would stream passengers from Union Depot to UTEP, Cielo Vista, and other citywide destinations.

District 8 Representative Beto O’Rourke explains, “we want to get all of these [bus lines] in a central location and offer passengers a world-class building with first-class amenities; similar to the El Paso [International] Airport. It will be like a long-haul bus version of the airport.”

The plan is to utilize some existing structures in Union Plaza, including the Union Plaza Transit Terminal (UPTT) and the beautiful overhead walkway that connects to Downtown’s convention center. “Some additional modifications will be made to the building and surrounding street fronts…but we’re confident that this will be done with little impact on surrounding neighborhoods,” says O’Rourke of the plans.
Acknowledging the strides the area has already made, O’Rourke believes the Union Depot developments will only add to the momentum permeating throughout the district. “[I expect] this to further spur development and revitalize the Union Plaza neighborhood,” he says. “Right now you have a number of successful bars but you don’t really have a lot of the other forms of recreation, entertainment, retail and restaurants. We want to encourage that while still protecting integrity of the existing neighborhood.”

Gomez, who is largely responsible for the area’s upswing, says, “Union Plaza has grown and will continue [to] grow into a success, regardless of what happens in other parts of Downtown or town. In a short while, people will look up and see this area of Downtown that [has] developed and wonder, ‘what happened?’”

With the encouraging developments taking place, it is clear what is happening: El Pasoans are beginning to appreciate the city for what it is and all that it can become.

And although the revitalization of Union Plaza has evolved slowly, El Pasoans can rest assured the revitalization is indeed evolving. And with progressive, committed and innovative citizens and city leaders, we can expect this area to eclipse the flourishing Plaza of El Paso’s heyday.