Wednesday, December 13, 2006
SWOP homepageFNS - Land Speculation, Gentrification Visit Border City
From Frontera Norte Sur News Service - more proof development and immigration issues are intertwined...
December 13, 2006
Ciudad Juarez News
Land Speculation, Gentrification Visit a Border City
Sunk in an economic morass, Ciudad Juarez waddled through one of the worst economic downturns in its history from 2000-03. Vacant industrial sites, idle factories and empty businesses characterized much of the economic life in Chihuahua state’s largest city. On the surface, the economic picture is much different today. A new convention center, chic nightclubs, sports betting parlors, hotel construction, retail development, and hot real estate deals give Ciudad Juarez the veneer of a renewed 21st Century dynamism. Rising land prices, fueled by capital shifts and promising new investments, are reported in different parts of the border city.
A magnet for businesses ranging from copy shops to moderately-prized hotels, the US Consulate’s planned move to a section of the city known as the Golden Zone is encouraging land speculation on adjacent streets. The Consulate is moving its sprawling headquarters from a convenient location near one of the international bridges to a site deeper in Ciudad Juarez’s urban core.
In Ciudad Juarez’s funky downtown, meanwhile, an ambitious renovation project similar in many ways to downtown redevelopment plans in neighboring El Paso and other major US cities is underway. Talk is even in the air of linking the downtowns of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in a binational “arts corridor,” a plan which if it sees thelight of day, would certainly radically transform the cheap, all-you-can drink nightlife strip that caters to El Paso and New Mexico youths. The area targeted for redevelopment has also been frequently marred by drug-dealing, mysterious disappearances of women, gangland-style executions and other violence.
Jointly promoted by the Chihuahua state and Ciudad Juarez municipal governments, the project seeks to rid the downtown area of seedy businesses and install new enterprises that will presumably draw a different and better-behaved clientele. Already, the gleaming new façade shrouding the old Benito Juarez Monument projects the “clean” image Ciudad Juarez’s movers and shakers want to promote.
A total of 170 buildings, including 33 homes and 137businesses, are targeted for buy-outs and removals in the zone roughly extending from the commercial strip along September 16 Avenue to the century-old Mariscal vice district. Almost $10 million dollars in public monies have been initially earmarked for the metropolitan make-over.
“Right now, the majority of the real estate is in decay,” said Roberto Chaires Almanza, Ciudad Juarez’s director of municipal urban development. “This is all about providing an incentive to set off a boom in downtown development…”
Overseeing the ambitious program on the ground, Chaires was involved in the redevelopment of Chihuahua City’s historic Downtown district during the administration of former
Governor Patricio Martinez. Another veteran of Chihuahua
City redevelopment, Valentin Trevizo, is under state-municipal contract to negotiate with the current property owners and, in his own words, blunt unnecessary price speculation.
Trevizo said recently: “I have instructions from the governor and mayor to carry out a fair negotiation. I believe it is a mistaken view if people don’t understand that it is fair and an opportunity to sell their property, because there will be no other opportunity.”
Interviewed by the local press, some downtown merchants expressed misgivings about the revitalization plan, or said they were simply uninformed about the scope of the project. The owner of La Superior Hardware, 69-year-old Don Sixto contended the initial offering price of $35,000 dollars for his family business was not even in the range of sane. “If they want to pay, let them pay what the store is worth and I will sell them the business and all,” retorted the shop owner.
A third locus of real estate speculation is emerging along the Anapra highway that connects downtown Ciudad Juarez to its sprawling, low-income suburb of Anapra, which hugs the sands of the New Mexico border. Set to connect Anapra with the Casas Grandes Highway and link up to the future binational border city of Jeronimo-Santa Teresa that is jointly supported by the Chihuahua and New Mexico state governments, The Camino Real highway development is regarded as the impetus for the sizzling real estate market in one of Ciudad Juarez’s poorest zones.
Prices for some strategically located small lots have reportedly increased by 26 times their original price in recent months. Long regarded as run-down, the outskirts of neighborhoods like Felipe Angeles are suddenly places of acute interest visited by mysterious buyers who are offering as much as $38-39,000 dollars for small lots. “I don’t know what to do or think,” remarked one resident who preferred to remain anonymous. “It seems strange to me that they are offering so much money just for a small part of the property.”
The soaring real estate prices near Anapra are sparking concerns about the possible displacement of tens of thousands of low-income residents who provide much of the labor force for the foreign-owned maquiladora plants.
“Where are the city’s poor going to go?” wondered Cesar Fuentes Flores, an urban planning researcher at the Colegio de La Frontera Norte in Ciudad Juarez. “This was the part of the city where they went before, now many go to the south, but with (land speculation), just where?” Fuentes cautioned that the gentrification of Anapra could disperse new social conflicts throughout the city.
Municipal Urban Development Director Chaires warned against purchasing land for high prices near Anapra until a final development plan for the area is approved and issued early next year. “The first step in acquiring a lot is to have the assurance of the city government that it is feasible to develop,” Chaires said. “It’s important not to get locked into speculating, because there is no certainty at the moment. It is speculation.”
Sources: El Diario de Juarez, December 11 and 12, 2006.
Articles by Gabriela Minjares and Horacio Carrasco.
Norte, December 11, 2006. Article by Arroyo Ortega.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
December 13, 2006
Ciudad Juarez News
Land Speculation, Gentrification Visit a Border City
Sunk in an economic morass, Ciudad Juarez waddled through one of the worst economic downturns in its history from 2000-03. Vacant industrial sites, idle factories and empty businesses characterized much of the economic life in Chihuahua state’s largest city. On the surface, the economic picture is much different today. A new convention center, chic nightclubs, sports betting parlors, hotel construction, retail development, and hot real estate deals give Ciudad Juarez the veneer of a renewed 21st Century dynamism. Rising land prices, fueled by capital shifts and promising new investments, are reported in different parts of the border city.
A magnet for businesses ranging from copy shops to moderately-prized hotels, the US Consulate’s planned move to a section of the city known as the Golden Zone is encouraging land speculation on adjacent streets. The Consulate is moving its sprawling headquarters from a convenient location near one of the international bridges to a site deeper in Ciudad Juarez’s urban core.
In Ciudad Juarez’s funky downtown, meanwhile, an ambitious renovation project similar in many ways to downtown redevelopment plans in neighboring El Paso and other major US cities is underway. Talk is even in the air of linking the downtowns of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in a binational “arts corridor,” a plan which if it sees thelight of day, would certainly radically transform the cheap, all-you-can drink nightlife strip that caters to El Paso and New Mexico youths. The area targeted for redevelopment has also been frequently marred by drug-dealing, mysterious disappearances of women, gangland-style executions and other violence.
Jointly promoted by the Chihuahua state and Ciudad Juarez municipal governments, the project seeks to rid the downtown area of seedy businesses and install new enterprises that will presumably draw a different and better-behaved clientele. Already, the gleaming new façade shrouding the old Benito Juarez Monument projects the “clean” image Ciudad Juarez’s movers and shakers want to promote.
A total of 170 buildings, including 33 homes and 137businesses, are targeted for buy-outs and removals in the zone roughly extending from the commercial strip along September 16 Avenue to the century-old Mariscal vice district. Almost $10 million dollars in public monies have been initially earmarked for the metropolitan make-over.
“Right now, the majority of the real estate is in decay,” said Roberto Chaires Almanza, Ciudad Juarez’s director of municipal urban development. “This is all about providing an incentive to set off a boom in downtown development…”
Overseeing the ambitious program on the ground, Chaires was involved in the redevelopment of Chihuahua City’s historic Downtown district during the administration of former
Governor Patricio Martinez. Another veteran of Chihuahua
City redevelopment, Valentin Trevizo, is under state-municipal contract to negotiate with the current property owners and, in his own words, blunt unnecessary price speculation.
Trevizo said recently: “I have instructions from the governor and mayor to carry out a fair negotiation. I believe it is a mistaken view if people don’t understand that it is fair and an opportunity to sell their property, because there will be no other opportunity.”
Interviewed by the local press, some downtown merchants expressed misgivings about the revitalization plan, or said they were simply uninformed about the scope of the project. The owner of La Superior Hardware, 69-year-old Don Sixto contended the initial offering price of $35,000 dollars for his family business was not even in the range of sane. “If they want to pay, let them pay what the store is worth and I will sell them the business and all,” retorted the shop owner.
A third locus of real estate speculation is emerging along the Anapra highway that connects downtown Ciudad Juarez to its sprawling, low-income suburb of Anapra, which hugs the sands of the New Mexico border. Set to connect Anapra with the Casas Grandes Highway and link up to the future binational border city of Jeronimo-Santa Teresa that is jointly supported by the Chihuahua and New Mexico state governments, The Camino Real highway development is regarded as the impetus for the sizzling real estate market in one of Ciudad Juarez’s poorest zones.
Prices for some strategically located small lots have reportedly increased by 26 times their original price in recent months. Long regarded as run-down, the outskirts of neighborhoods like Felipe Angeles are suddenly places of acute interest visited by mysterious buyers who are offering as much as $38-39,000 dollars for small lots. “I don’t know what to do or think,” remarked one resident who preferred to remain anonymous. “It seems strange to me that they are offering so much money just for a small part of the property.”
The soaring real estate prices near Anapra are sparking concerns about the possible displacement of tens of thousands of low-income residents who provide much of the labor force for the foreign-owned maquiladora plants.
“Where are the city’s poor going to go?” wondered Cesar Fuentes Flores, an urban planning researcher at the Colegio de La Frontera Norte in Ciudad Juarez. “This was the part of the city where they went before, now many go to the south, but with (land speculation), just where?” Fuentes cautioned that the gentrification of Anapra could disperse new social conflicts throughout the city.
Municipal Urban Development Director Chaires warned against purchasing land for high prices near Anapra until a final development plan for the area is approved and issued early next year. “The first step in acquiring a lot is to have the assurance of the city government that it is feasible to develop,” Chaires said. “It’s important not to get locked into speculating, because there is no certainty at the moment. It is speculation.”
Sources: El Diario de Juarez, December 11 and 12, 2006.
Articles by Gabriela Minjares and Horacio Carrasco.
Norte, December 11, 2006. Article by Arroyo Ortega.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
