We broke the news on March 4 that the City is planning a major expansion of the Convention Center south of San Antonio Avenue, up to the edge of Overland Avenue.
The next day, we filed a public information request for “copies of the letters of intent to acquire property that were sent to owners of property between W. San Antonio Avenue and W. Overland Avenue, between Leon Street and Santa Fe Street, in October, November or December 2024.” We also asked for “any and all information regarding the City’s plan to acquire property in order to expand the Convention Center, including any maps.”
The City had 10 business days to respond to our request. They waited until the deadline, March 19, to send a four-page letter to the Attorney General of Texas seeking an exception to the release of any documents because they are “directly related to the location of real property for a public purpose prior to public announcement of the project. In fact, the documents clearly provide the location of properties the City seeks to purchase for a public purpose.”
While awaiting a decision from the Attorney General, we learned on April 15 that our City Council voted under agenda items 35 and 36 to purchase 301 and 320 W. Overland Avenue from Mike Churchman for a total of $4,790,000, so apparently the project was moving forward.
“MAYBE EMINENT DOMAIN COULD BE BACK ON THE TABLE??”
It took nearly four months, but on July 17, 2025 the City informed us the Attorney General forced them to release to us some of the information we requested, including emails.
Reading through the electronic correspondence, we learned that around November 6, the City made offers to owners of 10 properties in the footprint of the planned Convention Center expansion and that they gave the owners until December 9 to submit their counteroffers.
On November 26 at 8:10am, Ellen Smyth, Chief Transit & Field Operations Officer, wrote to CFO Robert Cortinas and Jose Garcia, President & CEO of Destination El Paso: “FYI–the owner to 215 W. Overland Ave (Greyhound parking lot) is not willing to sell.”
At 12:49pm, Garcia responded to Smyth and Cortinas: “Thanks for the update Ellen. Unfortunate, maybe eminent domain could be back on the table??”
The City did not provide us with any record of a reply to this question.
Even more interesting, the City produced an email dated November 21 from Joe Oliver, owner of 202 Chihuahua Street, who wrote to the City: “I am open to discussing the potential sale of this property, provided that the negotiations are conducted in good faith. However, I am unable to enter into any meaningful discussions while the threat of eminent domain remains on the table.”
Did the City threaten Oliver and other property owners with eminent domain? The above email seems to confirm that.
COUNTEROFFERS RECEIVED, 9 OUT OF 10 AT LEAST 50% ABOVE APPRAISALS
On December 11, two days after the deadline for property owners to submit their counteroffers, Ellen Smyth wrote to City Manager Dionne Mack and Ben Fyffe, Managing Director of Quality of Life: “Here are all the counteroffers–one is a flat ‘no sell’ and one is nearly $6Mil for a property appraised for $160k.
The other 8 are all in the range of 50% above appraised price. Shall we continue with the acquis ion of the 8 and plan to take the other two to council in January?”
This seems like a repeat of the property acquisitions in the Arena Footprint in 2016-2017, when the City paid prices that were far above appraised values, totally screwing the taxpayers.
CITY MANAGER GOES ON THE RECORD
Yesterday we wrote to the City Manager to ask whether her staff is planning to recommend eminent domain to City Council as an option for acquiring properties from intransigent property owners.
She replied “We are not considering eminent domain. We do not plan to bring it as an option for City Council consideration.”
She added, “I met with the new property owners of 215 W Overland a while back. We are not pursuing purchase of that property.”
She also told us that the City did not have funds to pursue all 10 properties on their list and that they have closed on only two properties, presumably the two acquired from Mike Churchman last spring.
Since the City possesses only two of the properties in the planned Convention Center expansion footprint over seven months after counteroffers were due, that can only mean that the project is in real trouble.
We are grateful to the Attorney General for compelling the City to produce these emails and will continue to inform you as we learn more.