The 107 year old Globe Mills building in El Paso, vacant and decaying for decades, has been demolosued for freeway constrocution.
From thr EWl Psso Times: UPDATE: As of Apr 2016 the building has been demolished for road connstruction. See: (
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"Globe Mills building coming down for highway
Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times
12:18 p.m. MST January 21, 2016
A 107-year-old former flour mill — a red-brick landmark along Interstate 10, near the University of Texas at El Paso — will be demolished in the coming months to make way for the $600 million Border West Expressway.
The upcoming demolition of the former Globe Mills building has some lamenting the loss of another El Paso historical structure, while others welcome the end of what they see as an eyesore.
Max Grossman, vice chairman of the El Paso County Historical Commission, said he will be sorry to see the building, with its beautiful brickwork and important history, be lost forever. But, he said, he and the commission are not opposing the demolition because the building is in terrible condition and needs to go to expand the city's highway network.
Reactions on the commission's Facebook posting about the history of the building were a mixture of people sharing Grossman's lament, while others were happy to find out the building will be torn down.
The posting, which has drawn more than 150,000 views and hundreds of comments, shows El Pasoans are interested in the city's historical structures and architecture, Grossman said Tuesday.
Blake Barrow, chief executive officer of the Rescue Mission of El Paso, which sold the Globe Mills building and other buildings in the area to the Texas Department of Transportation for the Loop 375 extension project, said the Globe Mills building was a "beautiful, solid structure," but located in a bad place — between two busy railroad tracks and along Interstate 10.
If located in another area, it might have been possible to convert it into condos or other uses, he said.
The Rescue Mission last used part of the building as a furniture factory, Barrow said.
The mission, which is an El Paso homeless shelter, bought the Globe Mills building in 2005. It's part of a 7.5-acre mission campus with several buildings. The mission has been located in the area sandwiched between Paisano Drive and I-10 since 1985 when city leaders instigated the mission's move from an old Downtown hotel, Barrow said.
The Texas Department of Transportation has bought all of the mission's buildings through "negotiation under eminent domain," or possible condemnation, Barrow said.
McKinney Wrecking also operated a salvage store in a building next to the Globe Mills building and silos, but moved to 6966 Market on the East Side in July 2014 to make way for the highway project. It also sold its building to TXDOT.
The Rescue Mission had to be out of the Globe Mills building by February and must turn over its main building and other buildings bought by the agency by the end of August, Barrow said. The mission is building a new facility at 221 N. Lee in Central El Paso.
Blanca Del Valle, a TXDOT spokeswoman in El Paso, said in an email that the agency could not divulge the price it paid for the Rescue Mission properties because the "acquisition is ongoing." But Barrow said the deal is complete, and the Rescue Mission has until the end of August to turn over its main building and other buildings on the property. Del Valle also did not provide the sales price for the McKinney Wrecking property.
Barrow said he could not divulge the sales price for the mission properties, but the mission did not get enough money to pay for the full cost of building its new facility, he said.
"We are taking this opportunity to make the mission facility bigger and better," Barrow said. The new facility will have 190 beds compared to 130 beds at the current facility, he said.
Grossman said the El Paso flour mill was completed in 1909 and provided flour throughout Texas. It was the Globe Grain and Milling Co.'s first mill outside of California, according to information posted on the El Paso County Historical Commission's Facebook page. Pillsbury bought Globe Mills in the 1940s and the El Paso flour mill closed sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, according to the posting.
"We first lost Asarco, and now we're losing this. This whole area (between Paisano and I-10) was important in the early industrial history (of El Paso), and now the whole era is erased," Grossman said. "It's a shame from that standpoint."
No date has been set for the demolition of the Globe Mills building and the other El Paso Rescue Mission buildings, said Mandra Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Border West Expressway project, which is being built by the Abrams-Kiewit Joint Venture.
The contractor is holding a public informational open house about the project from 4-8 p.m., Jan. 28 at the Hilton Garden Hotel at 111 W. University on the UTEP campus.
More information: borderwestexpressway.com; facebook.com/El-Paso-County-Historical-Commission-204564212902428