Just over 45 million square feet of new manufacturing and warehouse space could soon be going up on a vast and vacant spread of land on the northeast side of El Paso.
And the new facilities may belong to the Ford Motor Company.
Although City of El Paso officials have not provided specific details, it has been rumored that Ford is interested in the development of the land, located near the intersection of Stan Roberts Drive and U.S. Route 54.
The site in question was purchased by the city more than a decade ago from the El Paso Board of Public Utilities when it was thought that an automaker might be interested in building a manufacturing plant there. Nothing ultimately came of that idea.
The 1,000-acre site, according to city documents, could see the construction of one building measuring around 4 million square feet, and another coming in at around 2 million square feet.
Those same documents also indicate structures designed to house offices, as well as a more than 100,000 square foot hazardous materials holding facility, and a series of water tanks.
A rezoning of the site – taking it from a ranch and farmland designation to heavy manufacturing -has won the approval of the El Paso Plan Commission.
Ford is currently looking for new land to build a battery manufacturing facility, and is thought to be interested in the Stan Roberts Drive site.
The company earlier this spring said that it wants to build two such facilities in order to produce an expected 600,000 electric vehicles in the next 3 years.
According to reports, Ford is also currently looking at sites for its battery plants in several other states.
Members of the El Paso City Council are soon expected to take up the rezoning question.
By Garry Boulard
