El Paso’s First Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – What’s the Holdup?

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema-Montecillo in West El Paso was projected to open in the spring of 2015, but it’s been almost a year since the mayor and several other city leaders attended the ground breaking ceremony and the site is still just a big, empty dirt lot.

So what’s the hold up? Is the project still happening?

I reached out to Triple Tap Ventures, who have the West Texas rights to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, to find out the reason for the lack of any visible progress and received an email reply from Marina Monsisvais, who handles communications for Montecillo -- that’s the mixed-use community development which sits across from where the theater will be at 5001 North Mesa. It is also a partner in the venture with Triple Tap.

Monsisvais conceded the project has fallen behind schedule and attributed it to “unforeseen issues that required additional reinforcement to the grades and surrounding slopes." She said construction would begin after the “placing [of] infrastructure (pipes,etc)…is finalized,” but declined to give a new timeline for an opening date.

So despite the fact that little headway has been made and the original completion date was obviously a bit too optimistic, fans of the movie house franchise famous for its strict policy against talking and texting during movies can rest assured it is still happening -- eventually.

Once completed, the nine screen theatre will serve as the anchor tenant of the Montecillo Town Center, which according to a company press release, “will include several restaurants, and retail outlets.” No other tenants or details regarding the center have been announced.