The Downtown Numbers Game
I recently spent some time on the Central Appraisal District website. It is a wonderful source of information on how much all property in El Paso is worth; worth dictates amount of taxes paid on said property. Here are some of the interesting things I found while on the site, btw I cross referenced with Texas Historical Atlas.
For a reference point I chose the Camino Real Hotel.
Camino Real Hotel – 101 South El Paso
The nicest hotel in El Paso, or at least they act as such. Crème de la crème.
Imp. Value $9,099,780 Land Value $2,626,260 Total App. Value $11,726,040
CAD Site: Link
Now, this is where it gets interesting, the Central Appraisal District net worth of the following El Paso Landmarks:
Mills Building – 303 North Oregon
Registered Historical Building in the State of Texas the twelve story Trost building in the heart of downtown, next to the $40 Million dollar renovated Plaza Theater, yet it is only worth 1 million dollars.
Imp. Value $705,811 Land Value $294,446 Total App. Value $1,000,257
CAD Site: Link
Historic Site: Link
Basset Building - 301 Texas Ave.
Historical Building in the State of Texas and another empty shell; why are these buildings empty?
Imp. Value $178,837 Land Value $696,163 Total App. Value $875,000
CAD Site: Link
Historic Site: Link
Plaza Hotel – Oregon and Mills Sts.
Not quite sure if this is correct, because it is listed as 106 Mills and this is the info for 100 Mills. You be the judge.
Imp. Value $169,565 Land Value $507,780 Total App. Value $677,345
CAD Site: Link
Historic Site: Link
Hotel Cortez – 300 North Mesa
Seven story building standing at the corner of Mesa Street and Texas Avenue. MESA AND TEXAS!!! Seriously, what the F— is going on here. Each story is worth less than $1,000. WTF? My mom’s house, a one story 1800 sf house in the Lower Valley is worth more than this building, that is, according to CAD. Why is CAD saying this place is worth only 6 g’s? Who is letting CAD do this while homeowners are getting gouged 10% more in the past year alone?
Imp. Value $6,223 Land Value $88,704 Total App. Value $94,927
CAD Site: Link
Historic Site: Link
Owner who needs to sell, die, or go to hell:
VALUTA CORPORATION
300 S MESA ST
EL PASO, TX 799012340
Caples Building – 300 East San Antonio
Another Trost building. At least they are getting taxed a bit. The building is worth something, but still $500,000 on a prime corner in downtown? That’s about as much as 5 new houses in the Tierra’s, maybe 2 in the nicer neighborhoods.
Imp. Value $513,765 Land Value $366,100 Total App. Value $879,865
CAD Site: Link
Historic Site: Link
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about anything. I do know that there seems to be something fishy going on here. Buildings in downtown are not worth much, CAD doesn’t tax them much. Will Sanders has pointed this out many times in his Downtown Plan. I just don’t quite understand why. CAD decides worth in El Paso. They don’t think much of downtown, but they think very highly of the new homes on the Eastside. I guess that’s it. Maybe someone knows someone at CAD and they can explain it.
What I do know is that historical renovations are not cheap and damn near all of downtown is historic. There are Historical Boards, ADA requirements, and code to be met. If one neglects anything long enough, at some point the damage is irrecoverable. I believe that is what has happened to our downtown. I wish Trost had skipped El Paso; it would be a lot easier if his buildings weren’t everywhere. Prominent Architect, I agree; one of the greats, not so sure.
I’m not sure how to fix this downtown problem, but having an 11 million dollar building (Camino) next to a 1 million dollar building (Mills) isn’t really cool. That’s equal to having a $100,000 house next to a $10,000 house. It just does not make sense.
I think City Council members should go down to CAD and actually serve their constituents in a productive manner. Investigate! Interrogate! Do something! Why have they let CAD take money from ever last citizen in El Paso, except for downtown? Council has spent so much energy on the downtown plan, why are they not questioning why CAD is appraising these properties at such a low amount. I mean really, what the hell is going on? If you sit on council and are reading this I would love the explanation to this question: Why is a seven story building in downtown El Paso worth less than 7,000?
Maybe I searched incorrectly? Maybe the CAD website is wrong? Maybe downtown isn’t worth anything and the appraisals are correct? Given what I have found in the past couple of days, I have come to two conclusions:
1) Downtown is worth something - Then treat it as such. Why isn’t anyone asking CAD for justification of the low appraisals? Why has the City let this go on for so long? Why hasn’t anyone done anything?
2) Downtown is worth nothing – Then let it go. Why is city council and O’Rourke specifically so engrossed in making Downtown better? Why has the city let every other growing part of the city grow in such an odd way? Why have things like 375 not connecting to I-10, the Montwood/Zaragoza intersection, and the general deterioration of all streets occurred?
I’m just tired of hearing and talking about downtown. I could care less either way. But Downtown needs to pull its share; the way it is now, homeowners are paying for everything and its just not cool. Anyways, I apologize for wasting valuable time with my never ending post. I now want to find out who is in charge of what and how it all works. I want to understand the gears of this machine. That’s all I got for now, but more to come on CAD Directors, CAD Board, and Historical Board.
-chesswithdeath
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6 Comments, Comment or Ping
cjnance
Taking a quick look myself, I found the following:
Chase Building $10,889,430
Wells Fargo Building $4,925,174
One Paul Kayser Center $7,158,809
I find it strange that the Wells Fargo building is worth less than half of the Camino Real.
May 24th, 2007
cjnance
Also, I think the correct entry for the Hotel Cortez is here.
The one you linked to was 300 S Mesa. The Cortez Building is N Mesa.
“Owner who needs to sell, die, or go to hell”
Poor Valuta Corp.
May 24th, 2007
gabem
The low amounts might be set to compensate for the irrecoverable damage that you mentioned, if anything. I do know one thing though, there are too many beautiful, huge buildings in downtown going to waste with no business happening in them, or nobody living in them.
Looking for an apartment downtown can be a nightmare. I love the buildings, but they obviously need work. Some of them have been really taken care of, ex the Union Fashion apartments. Notice how I’m not talking about the exterior, but you can’t judge a book by it’s cover correct? By the way, the buildings do not have to be spotless, but they should look like somebody has cared about them. Some other buildings have too much potential that they cannot go to waste, no matter how much it’s going to cost to renovate them. Council needs to renovate, not destroy. None of the buildings downtown should be torn down, there’s too much history to do that. Obviously I don’t believe that everything can be saved. Most should though.
I don’t understand how a 7 story building downtown can be worth so little. Quality of livelihood? The area? You can do pretty much anything you need to do in downtown. You can even friggen walk your dog at the park. Shit, me and my mother spent a good part of our Saturday in downtown this weekend. She can’t believe how some of the buildings are vacant, empty, and in need of repairs. Nobody wants to see plywood covered windows or broken windows for that matter. But these buildings are still beautiful. My mom kept going on how downtown was the place to be on the weekend, to do pretty much anything. She explained how the streets and sidewalks used to be very clean (almost spotless), business was booming. She mentioned how people used to dress up back in those days just because they were going downtown.
Downtown is obviously worth lots if the plan is being pushed by the majority of council. It’s worth a hell of a lot more to the community than these figures. Steve and Beto read this site, hell after Melina was voted “most annoying council member” I believe she reads it too.
Downtown needs to pull it’s weight, but help is needed from the city if things are going to be repainted, brought up to code, cleaned, and made appropriate to the way they should be, to the way they originally were.
Homeowners have the right to be pissed, their taxes are still rising. Bottom line, downtown has to be worth something. It’s beautiful, its got its own style, it’s Downtown. Could this be a classic example of El Paso complacency?
May 27th, 2007
gabem
By the way, debate has sparked up regarding this issue over on the Strelz message board:
http://strelzbacktalk.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=EP&action=display&thread=1179967160
May 28th, 2007
gabem
Also, Jenni Burton has provided another way at looking at some of these numbers. What do you think chesswithdeath?
Link
Jun 3rd, 2007
915hive
You see concern for low value placed on these buildings I see opportunity. El Paso is every fortunate. Prime Las Vegas land value is $30 million per acre. How do you get from here to there? Tolerance. Passion. Maybe a little luck. Who knows? What I do know is that you should begin with fundamentals. Why don’t people live downtown? If 1% of the population lived downtown, how would the area be different.
Jul 10th, 2007
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