![]() One of the great historic Art Deco treasures of downtown El Paso is soon going to be repurposed owing to incentives support from the city. Located at 110 E. Mills Avenue, the Kress Building is the former home of an S.H. Kress and Company department store that was opened in 1938 and served as a full-serve, multi-story store for half a century. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the structure in the last two decades was in decline before being purchased in late 2018 by El Paso oilman and developer Paul Foster. In the last three years Foster has several times aired ideas on updating the structure known for its buff-colored stucco cladding, red Spanish tile roof, and 5-story corner tower. But now a plan to repurpose the building as a food hall and events center has secured just over $2 million in city rebates, as approved by the El Paso City Council. Those incentives are in addition to nearly $415,000 in property tax rebates that the project is also receiving from the County of El Paso. What is expected to be a more than $18 million project will see the upgrading of the building’s grand 15,000 square foot main floor, reconfiguring that space for use by a series of food vendors. The second floor, also measuring 15,000 square feet, will see the construction an events center, with meeting rooms of various sizes. The structure’s basement will be refigured for a salon and spa. Work on what is expected to be a two-year project is expected to begin by mid-summer. Nearly 300 Kress buildings were built during the first half of the last century, with each structure being architecturally distinctive. According to the Washington-based National Building Museum, Samuel Kress, owner of Kress and Company, regarded each of his stores as “works of public art that would contribute to the cityscape.” By Garry Boulard
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