Could Downtown El Paso Lose Tricky Falls?

Downtown El Paso might be losing a premiere concert venue. Tricky Falls has been rocking the El Paso music scene a concert venue for about 7 years, but they might have to close their doors because the building is for sale and the Tricky Falls lease expires at the end of October.

Tricky Falls is owned by among others, Jim Ward, a founding member of the band At the Drive-In, and is known for attracting medium market bands that used to travel through El Paso but often didn't play here because there wasn't a venue of a size they needed.

In an article about the fifth anniversary of Tricky Falls, one of the co-owners, Gabe Gonzalez talked about the area when they first opened back in 2011. He said “At the time, it was kind of a risk. If you recall, there wasn’t a whole lot going on around here back then, and the City hadn’t put street lights out there yet, so it was pretty menacing."

One offer for the building has been turned down, but the owners say there are a couple of other potential buyers who have shown interest in it. The 103-year-old building is a Trost-designed building that opened in 1914 as the Alhambra Theatre.

Hopefully whoever ends up buying this building will see the benefit of having a venue like Tricky Falls as a tenant. Losing this kind of cool, downtown concert venue dims the appeal of downtown for millenials, and they are the ones who need to be invested in going to downtown so that we don't lose the remaining historical gems we have.