The Kress Building is closer to becoming Downtown El Paso's brand-new food hall.

The Paul Foster-owned building project is expected to be completed by early 2025.

This is what Foster's Franklin Mountain Investments plans to do with the Kress Building in Downtown El Paso:

• The Kress' lunch counter with a soda fountain will be remade to its original glory with one portion a soda fountain and another operating as an old-fashioned diner, said Robert Monarez, Franklin Mountain vice president of food and beverage.

• The huge counter will go in its original, elevated space along two adjoining walls. The counter, likely replaced during a 1955 renovation, was unusable, so a new one will be built to resemble the original version, said El Paso architect William "Bill" Helm, who is helping restore historic touches in the building.

• Make the building's mammoth, now-gutted first floor into a food hall with a full-service restaurant at one end, nine stations for local food vendors, and six local retail spaces, including a floral shop.

• The second floor, where the store's administrative offices and storage were located, will be turned into an entertainment/event venue with a small, private screening room and other still-undetermined amenities. An arcade is one possibility, said William Kell, Franklin Mountain's chief operating officer.

• The basement will become a grotto-style spa with hydrotherapy pools and a full-service salon. It will be open to guests of the adjacent Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, another of Foster's renovations, and connected through a tunnel to be built under Oregon Street.

• The L-shaped building's exterior, covered in cream-colored, glazed terra cotta with a distinctive corner tower, will remain intact.

What does Foster have planned next for Downtown El Paso? Click here to find out.

Vic Kolenc contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Kress Building El Paso construction begins on becoming a food hall