Bulldozers are tearing into the former headquarters of El Paso's largest housing authority, clearing a 105,000-square-foot building at 5300 E. Paisano Drive to make way for as many as 300 new apartments aimed at healthcare workers and students. The demolition, which Housing Opportunity Management Enterprises began this week, is expected to wrap up by the end of 2026.
The building has a layered history. It served as the city's main U.S. Postal Service facility before HOME moved in during 2001, and it later did double duty as a philatelic center, according to KTSM 9 News. HOME used the property as its headquarters until 2019, when it relocated to the Blue Flame Building in Downtown El Paso. That move followed a $36 million adaptive reuse project that converted the historic 18-story tower into a mixed-use development with 120 affordable apartments, restoring the building's iconic 21-foot weather-forecasting flame beacon along the way, per KVIA.
Procurement records reviewed by HigherGov show the Paisano Drive site spans 7.45 acres and describe demolition of the building and site. HOME CEO Gerald Cichon said the demolition marks the end of an important chapter in the agency's history and the beginning of a new one, according to the station's report.
A Site Built for the Healthcare Corridor
HOME has proposed converting the cleared land into a Class A affordable apartment community with roughly 200 to 300 one- and two-bedroom homes, the outlet's article notes. Construction on the development is not expected to begin until late 2027, and HOME says the project responds to the evolving needs of El Paso's workforce, students, and growing neighborhoods, per a press release cited in the same report.
The location is no accident. The immediate area around 5300 E. Paisano Drive currently has limited housing options for students and employees, even though it sits near the Medical Center of the Americas district — home to the region's only Level 1 Trauma Center at University Medical Center of El Paso and to El Paso Children's Hospital, according to BIO El Paso-Juarez. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, which operates seven health and medical schools in the area, rounds out a district where healthcare is the metro's largest private-sector employer. HOME says it hopes the new apartments will help support that expanding workforce.
A Housing Authority Betting Big on Growth
The Paisano project is one piece of a much larger expansion. Housing Opportunity Management Enterprises was established in 1938 as the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso before rebranding in 2021, and it now operates 99 communities serving more than 52,000 residents, making it the 14th largest public housing authority in the country, according to HOME. It has also converted 100 percent of its traditional public housing portfolio under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program, a mechanism that lets housing authorities tap private equity and debt to fund property upgrades.
S&P Global Ratings reported in July that HOME had adopted a strategic growth plan to add 1,200 affordable housing units per year through new developments and acquisitions, expanding beyond its existing 13,000 units in El Paso, as Hoodline previously reported on Eastside Crossings. HOME is also building that separate $6.9 million, 41-unit income-restricted complex on a vacant lot along North Zaragoza Road, part of the same development pipeline feeding the Paisano Drive plan.
The agency's ambitions extend beyond city limits, too. In 2025, HOME established a tax-exempt nonprofit affiliate called Sixteenth Floor Residential Inc., which completed a $61.2 million acquisition of an apartment community in South Carolina in June 2026, according to Multi-Housing News.
The Local Pressure Behind the Push
The Paisano redevelopment lands amid local housing pressures in El Paso.
That pressure has also hit HOME's own waiting lists. Main waiting lists for the agency's central Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program have remained closed to new applicants since mid-2024 due to high regional demand, per the Waythrough Project. The backlog has also raised concerns for existing residents.
For now, the Paisano Drive site remains in the demolition phase, with the fuller vision of the apartment community still years from breaking ground. HOME has framed the project as reflecting its broader commitment to expanding affordable housing opportunities in a city where both rents and demand keep climbing.
