El Paso City Council Decides To Demolish Cohen Stadium

Northeast El Paso is going to be undergoing a change soon. Cohen Stadium is going to be demolished to make room for an aquatic center.

El Paso City Council voted to go ahead with the new center after the positive feedback they say they got from the Northeast community. City officials say the new center should bring economic growth and jobs to the northeast. Northeast city rep Sam Morgan calls the new aquatic center a major step forward to modernizing the area.

After the demolition of Cohen Stadium is completed, site prep will take place to put the infrastructure down for the aquatic center.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to start this month and should be completed by 2020. The aquatic center is supposed to cost about $7.7 million. The latest designs now include a high definition Jumbotron, a public square, retail stores and restaurants. There were plans to put in a Montecillo-type smart code community on the site of Cohen stadium, but northeast residents went to public meetings and said they didn't want a residential development. They were able to convince Council to put in a water park as well.

Cohen Stadium opened in 1990 and was the second home of the El Paso Diablos. They moved to Cohen Stadium from Dudley Field by the El Paso Zoo when Cohen was built. The stadium was named for the former Major League Baseball players Andy Cohen and his brother Syd Cohen who grew up in El Paso.