Real Estate Division outlines city property cleanup; broker raises access and commission concerns

Mary Lou Espinosa, Capital Assets Manager for the City of El Paso's Real Estate Division, briefed the City Plan Commission on the division's work and plans to bring a series of administrative property items to the commission for alignment with current planning and infrastructure needs.

Espinosa said the division tracks about 5,300 property records held in the city's name and handles transactions including purchases, sales, leases, short-term access agreements and easements. She previewed forthcoming items—replats, dedications, vacations and a planned replat to formally dedicate Billy Rogers Arroyo as permanent open space—and pointed commissioners to the division’s online property listings and application portal at elpasotexas.gov/real-estate.

During Q&A a local commercial broker (recorded in the transcript only by speaker label) said he often could not reach division staff and complained that the city does not appear to pay other brokers when properties are listed. The broker said this limits opportunities and engagement with the broker community. Espinosa replied that the city works with a contracted broker and that the contract allows the on‑call broker to pay cooperating brokers via a gross commission arrangement. "The gross commission basically means that our broker has the ability to pay commission to another broker," she said. Espinosa added that properties not formally declared surplus by City Council are not available for sale and encouraged brokers to use the online application process to propose acquisitions.

Why it matters: The Real Estate Division’s efforts to vet and clean the city’s property inventory can change how parcels are listed or repurposed and affect when properties become available for purchase or lease. Broker access and cooperation agreements affect market outreach and potential offer availability.

What remains unclear from the transcript: Espinosa said the division is performing due diligence across the portfolio and that she has overseen the division since 2021, but specific timelines for each property’s surplus designation were not given in the discussion. The transcript records the broker’s complaint and Espinosa’s procedural response; it does not include an auditorable record of individual broker-call logs or a roll-call of staff actions.