“El Paso is one of the better retail and restaurant markets in the country” for a number of reasons, including new housing growth and the availability of land for new centers, he said.

Rebecca Rojas, a retail leasing agent for commercial real estate firm CBRE, said shoppers crossing the border from Mexico and a large military family presence tied to the huge Fort Bliss Army post also boost El Paso’s retail market.

El Paso’s retail vacancy rate has been hovering around 3.3 percent over the last year, lower than the national rate hovering at 5.3 percent, shows a recent report from Cushman & Wakefield, a national commercial real estate firm.

A continuing shortage of electric transformers has slowed the opening of some centers, developers said. River Oaks has dodged the problem by ordering transformers as much as a year before they’re needed, Frank said.