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Devil is in the Details
The revitalization plan for downtown proposed by the PDNG sounds “oh so good” until you look into the details. The Redevelopment District part of the plan calls for the expropriation of 127.5 acres of prime commercial real estate. The current owners of these properties have three choices. Sell to the REIT at a negotiated price, trade the property for stock in the REIT, or suffer the hammer of Eminent Domain. At the end of the day these owners will no longer own their property and the City government will have facilitated the expropriation of private property to be given to another private entity i.e. the REIT thereby subverting the constitution’s fifth amendment, which only allows the exercise of eminent domain over private property for PUBLIC USE. The PDNG plan uses the government to take private property and turn it over to another private entity. This is called robbery. Very few pieces of property in the Redevelopment District have traded hands because no one wants to sell such valuable property. They collect good rents and tenant turnover is very low.
Through the years some of the property owners have remodeled and refurbished their properties without the City government’s help or encouragement. What the city needs to do now is set up an Office of Redevelopment and a Store Front Improvement Program to help those property owners who have neglected their properties. Phoenix has such an office. The city pays for the initial conceptual design work and the budget proposal. Once the owners of the property and the architect have agreed to go forward, the city helps arrange the financing. This is a much more viable route to achievie our shared goal of revitalizing downtown El Paso by including its stakeholders and we can avoid being guilty of abrogating the constitution.
Gil Kimmelman
El Paso
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