El Paso Historic Preservation Renovation Project

The El Paso Historic Preservation Renovation Project at 800 E Schuster Ave, El Paso, TX 79902, is a registered renovation of an existing building. The project is filed under the name El Paso High School, with El Paso Independent School District listed as the owner of record. The estimated cost for this work is $15,800,000, covering 10,000 sq ft of space. This places the cost at $1,580 per square foot, a figure significantly above the county median for similar renovation filings.

Project Scope and Funding

The scope of work is defined as the renovation of the existing structure. The filing indicates that this project involves public funds, public land, or is a Federally funded roadway project. Nine Degrees Architecture Design, Inc is the design firm of record for the project. Abril Paola Parra is the registered accessibility specialist associated with the filing. The project was registered with TDLR in August 2026, although the construction start date per the filing is May 2023, with a target completion date of December 2025.

Because the target completion date of December 2025 has passed, the current status requires careful attention to the public record. The TDLR status is listed as Project Registered. However, no plan review or inspection has been recorded since registration. This means that whether the construction proceeded as scheduled is not confirmed in the public record. The lack of recorded inspections or plan reviews leaves the physical progress of the renovation unverified in the official TDLR database.

Context and Comparison

El Paso Independent School District has six other TDLR-registered projects in the area, totaling $721,000. These include work at Coronado High School, Burges High School, Bowie High School, Lamar Elementary School, and Vilas Elementary School. Most of these other projects are marked as closed or review complete, with costs ranging from $51,000 to $200,000. The El Paso High School project is notably larger in both scale and cost, sitting in the top quarter of estimated costs for renovation and alteration filings in El Paso County.

The scheduled build window for this project is 950 days, which is longer than the county median of 120 days for similar work. The $1,580 per square foot cost is also above the county median of $66 per square foot. These figures suggest a complex, high-value renovation effort. The area, identified by ZIP code 79902, has a population of about 18,529 according to U.S. Census ACS 2023 five-year estimates. The median household income in this area is $45,333, and the median owner-occupied home value is $223,300. Housing in this ZIP code is mostly renter-occupied.

El Paso County unemployment rate (FRED, July 2026) was 4.8 percent, higher than a year earlier. This labor market context may influence the availability of skilled workers for large-scale renovation projects. The project remains registered with TDLR, but the absence of recorded inspections means the completion status is not officially confirmed. Readers should note that the public record does not provide evidence of finished work or operational status for the school building itself.