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Downtown El Paso is recieving a much-needed injection of capitol by young investors willing to invest in several magnificent historic buildings designed during the Art Deco period of the 1920’s and 30’s. Developer Lane Gaddy recently purchased the 15 story Bassett Tower, formerly an office building, and has plans to transform it into a 100-room hotel.
The Bassett Tower is one of numerous buildings designed by regionally acclaimed architect Henry C. Trost.
“It really is a very beautiful building,” says Gaddy. “It has a lot of significant history to downtown El Paso, in a lot of different ways; the architecture itself is symbolic of El Paso’s previous successes, which we believe are now in a period of re-emergence here.”
From New York to Los Angeles, efforts are underway across the country to reverse the trend of demolition of aging Art Deco structures, and to move toward restoration and renovation. In El Paso alone, nearly a dozen buildings can be classified as Art Deco.
“I don’t know if anyone comes to El Paso just to look at our Art Deco buildings,” says McCorgary, tourism and marketing manager with the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“But I do know that once tourists are here and they end up doing a walking tour of the downtown area, they are always fascinated by how many of these buildings we have and how beautiful they are,” says McCorgary.
Local Businessman and philanthropist Paul Foster completed renovations on the 12-story Anson Mills Building downtown in recent years. He has also purchased the Plaza Hotel with intent to restore the building.
Construction on the Bassett Tower is expected to begin sometime next spring or summer, with a completion date of one year after that.
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