A vacant lot at 3557 North Zaragoza Road in East El Paso is about to become the site of a $40 million apartment complex, with Mountain Regency Residences of El Paso listed as the company behind the project. The development would rise just off Rich Beem Boulevard, within sight of two existing shopping centers, adding another residential project to a stretch of East El Paso that has already seen new apartment construction in recent months.
According to the El Paso Times, the project will sit near Paseo Real IV and La Tienda de Zaragoza, both shopping centers that border the proposed site. The complex is planned atop a currently vacant parcel, and city permit records list Mountain Regency Residences LLC of El Paso as the project's owner. Jesus Ortega of Exigo Architects in El Paso is named as the applicant on file.
Beyond the address, ownership and dollar figure, the public record is thin. The city's website did not provide the number of planned units, their sizes, or any amenities tied to the project, nor did it list a contractor for the build. No timeline for construction or completion has surfaced in available city documentation.
Rents Climbing Across El Paso
The Mountain Regency proposal lands as El Paso's apartment market tightens. Nationally, the push for more apartments has been attributed to rising home payments and rents, a limited supply of new homes for sale, and shifting demographic and market trends, the report notes. Locally, that pressure is translating into real numbers for renters.
The Texas Real Estate Research Center projects that two-bedroom apartment leases in El Paso will average $1,360 a month in 2026, with one-bedroom units climbing to an average of $1,162, according to the center's regional forecast. Those elevated rents, the center says, are expected to push multifamily construction in the region to its highest volume since 2017, a surge that would include projects like the one planned for North Zaragoza Road.
Zaragoza Road's Apartment Boom
Mountain Regency would not be the first new apartment project to land on this stretch of road. Just over a mile away at 2055 North Zaragoza Road, Hoodline previously reported on a 41-unit complex called Eastside Crossings rising on a 1.76-acre vacant lot. That $6.9 million project comes from Housing Opportunity Management Enterprises, known as HOME, with Robert Garland III listed as the applicant working alongside local firm Wright and Dalbin Architects.
HOME has adopted a growth strategy aiming to add 1,200 affordable housing units annually through acquisitions and new developments, per the same Hoodline report. The organization's push follows a 2025 HUD market analysis that projected demand for 2,300 new rental units in El Paso between 2022 and 2025, even though only 740 rental units were under construction at the start of that period.
Nearby, the 225-unit Desert Commons complex at 2801 North Zaragoza Road has already made a name for itself, winning a 2024 CoStar Impact Award. Together, these projects point to a corridor of East El Paso absorbing a steady wave of new rental housing as the city works to close the gap between demand and available units.
For now, Mountain Regency Residences' plans remain in an early stage, with key details about the complex's size and design still unreleased. As El Paso's rental market continues tightening heading into 2026, the vacant lot on North Zaragoza Road stands as one more marker of how fast the city's apartment landscape is shifting.
