04/09/2004
By Vic Kolenc
El Paso Times
El Paso businessman Bob Jones hopes to spur Downtown redevelopment by putting office workers and students in two prominent and vacant Downtown office buildings, which Jones recently purchased for more than $2.6 million.
Jones last week completed the purchase of the 16-story Blue Flame Building at 120 N. Stanton St., once the headquarters of El Paso Natural Gas Co., which moved to Houston in 1996. And late last month, he completed the purchase of the 12-story Mills Building at Oregon and Mills streets, which had housed El Paso Electric Co. until early 1997.
"Downtown El Paso can be the hub it once was and much more," Jones said in a written statement. One key to doing that is to have more people occupying office buildings there, he said.
He bought the Blue Flame Building for $1.63 million from the El Paso Independent School District, the district reported. The district used the building for administrative offices for a time.
A deed of trust filed in the county clerk's office indicates the Mills Building was bought for $1 million from Westcap Corp. That's a subsidiary of National Western Life Insurance Co. of Austin.
Jones, who has been in El Paso more than 20 years, has seen various Downtown initiatives fail and decided "somebody needs to step to the plate and start something," said Marc Schwartz, a spokesman for the businessman. Jones was not available Thursday for an interview.
Jones is best known as president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Employment of the Disabled. It's a not-for-profit corporation, which operates an East Side factory with about 2,500 mostly disabled workers and operates a psychiatric hospital. It also owns Access Administrators, a health-plan administration company. Jones is also a managing partner of the East Side's Physicians Hospital, which opened late last year.
The not-for-profit center is not involved in the building purchases, Schwartz said.
Jones' background includes operating businesses involved in real estate development. He was a consultant for Franklin Land and Resources Inc., a former subsidiary of El Paso Electric, which renovated the Camino Real Hotel and Cortez Building, Schwartz said.
Paul Dipp, a partner in Plaza Properties, which owns the historic Plaza Hotel building across the street from the Mills Building, said, "We're very excited about him being involved (in Downtown) because he's an experienced real-estate developer (and) a very significant force in the community."
Jones' plans for the Mills and Blue Flame buildings could make it easier for Plaza Properties to attract a developer to refurbish the 18-story hotel building, Dipp said.
Michael Breitinger, executive director of the Central Business Association, said, "Any occupancy (of vacant buildings) brings energy Downtown, whether employees or students. It can only serve to help Downtown."
Plans for the Mills Building call for locating a performing arts and science school for middle- and high-school students there. Jones asked Iris Burnham to start the school. She is founder and superintendent of the private School for Educational Enrichment and the public Burnham Wood Charter School, located on the same West Side campus.
"A school would generate interest and population in an area that hasn't had that," Burnham said. "He (Jones) sees the connectivity necessary to make the (Downtown) community vibrant and come alive."
The school could have as many as 400 students and "when you bring children, their parents will follow to see performances and go to open houses," Burnham said.
The school, which would operate as a not-for-profit organization, is targeted for a 2005 opening, Burnham said.
Plans also call for eventually having dormitories in the school to bring students in from Mexico and other parts of this region, she said.
Jones plans to locate at least 300 employees of Access Administrators, the health-plan administration company, in the Blue Flame Building and expects to get other tenants, Schwartz said.
Remodeling will be done on both buildings, Schwartz said.
El Paso Renaissance Blue Flame LP and El Paso Renaissance Mills LP are limited partnerships formed by Jones to purchase the buildings. Those operate under Sahara Development, a company Jones recently started to handle the newly purchased buildings and other holdings, Schwartz said.
The buildings
• The Mills Building, 303 N. Oregon: A creation of Gen. Anson Mills and built by noted El Paso architect Henry C. Trost in stages from 1911 to 1915. Erected when El Paso was a city of 15,000, the 12-story building dominated the Downtown landscape. It's been vacant since early 1997, when El Paso Electric Co. moved out.
• Blue Flame
Building, 120 N. Stanton: Built in 1953 by prolific El Paso contractor
Robert E. McKee. The 16-story building for years was headquarters for
El Paso Natural Gas Co. The company in 1996 donated it to the El Paso
Independent School District, which used it for administrative offices
for a time. The building's name comes from the 21-foot illuminated
flame on its roof.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at [email protected], 546-6421.
Photo
Caption: The Mills Building, at Mills and Oregon streets Downtown, was
completed in 1915 and designed by noted El Paso architect Henry C.
Trost. New owner Bob Jones plans to
house a fine arts middle school and high school in the building, which
is near the El Paso Museum of Art and the Plaza Theatre.
Transactions recorded at the El Paso County clerk's office show that the companies Jones controls sold the Blue Flame Building, the Mills Building and the Luther Building, which he bought in 2004 for about $3 million.
05/12/2006
Bob Jones,
the former president and chief operating officer of El Paso's National
Center for Employment of the Disabled, sold his three Downtown
buildings Thursday.
It's all so sad, really. Obviously, Mr. Jones is an intelligent man. Pity, that he could not do it the right way.
Posted by: 2myeye | June 12, 2009 at 03:55 PM
What the...? And he stole from many people at NCED with very poor wages, yet he still manages to buy buildings? I expect a share of that Mr. Jones.
Posted by: mirna | June 13, 2009 at 11:09 AM