Organizers of an auction to sell a grand downtown El Paso landmark are planning to contact those who registered for the event in the hope of seeing the structure eventually sold.
Located at 300 E. San Antonio Avenue, the Caples Building was completed in late 1909 and for decades housed both office and retail space.
The structure, which has been in a depleted condition for more than a decade, was formerly owned by El Paso businessman William Abraham, but was purchased in 2018 by a Los Angeles-based investor for $1.1 million.
After plans to renovate the building and turn it into apartment and condo space were abandoned, a three-day online auction, conducted by the Irvine, California-based Ten-X Commercial, was held earlier this month, with the highest bid coming in $25,000 below the minimum $2.2 million selling price.
Now an effort is expected to be made to contact the more than two dozen people who had registered for the auction in the hope that the building may still be sold.
The Caples Building measures just under 56,000 square feet and is listed with the National Register of Historic Places. It was designed by well-known southwest architect Henry C. Trost.
The first reinforced concrete structure to be built in El Paso, the Caples Building originally stood at 5 stories, with two more levels added by 1916.
By Garry Boulard
