Bobby Smith owns Percolator Coffee Shop in downtown.

Business is fine during the day, but at night it is a different story.

"At night downtown kind of empties out,” Smith said. “After these businesses down here go home, everybody drives back -- east, west, wherever they live -- downtown kind of dies.”

Even with the downtown revitalization, downtown businesses rely large conventions and tourists, and there aren't many right now.

Many people attribute the lack of conventions and tourism to the lack of full-service hotels in the area. There just isn't enough hotel space to house a large number of visitors in downtown..

“The key to the success to the revitalizing of downtown is building full-service hotels in proximity to not only the El Paso Convention Center, but all the feature, advantage and benefit of downtown,” said Bill Blaziek, director of the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Blaziek also cites that many hotels downtown closed in the mid-‘90’s due to El Paso’s lagging economy.

"We lost downtown hotels, and we have been unsuccessful in attracting hotel developers to date," Blaziek said.

If El Paso cannot attract hotel builders to build in downtown, Smith has a harder time making a profit.

"I think it would benefit a lot,” Smith said.