Why The Drew Street Parking Lot Is Worsley's Worse Site-Selection For His Real Estate Empire Schemes

Just five years ago in preparation for a 3D Visualization study by Corey Whittaker on the impact of light rail extending into the downtown historic area for a Central Main Plan, a similar proposal for a 6-story mixed-use building in the adjacent BofA parking lot got nixed

When a long-time Arizona politician who's elected to public office while at the same time acquiring a big portfolio of properties on Main Street here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa  as 'a private developer' [who happens to be married to Utah-money family-interests], there's bound to be questions asked about possible conflicts-of-interest.
That is unless these schemes can "fly under-the-radar" during months of undisclosed and behind-the-scenes meetings with city officials and cohorts of friends in high places. There could be scandals ahead in the volatile mix.

After the rejection in November 2016 by Mesa taxpayers to approve sales/transaction tax increases to fund a $200 Million Pie-In-The-Sky shaky proposal to radically transform downtown into a satellite campus for ASU that devoured downtown Tempe, preceded by another preposterous plan the year before for City Center Urban Plaza Mesa that was only 30%-funded, an un-named group of investors snatched-up title to real estate with offers to purchase at $100 per square foot properties along the path of the Valley Metro Light Rail Central Mesa Extension into the historic downtown area two years ago with Mayor John Giles proclaiming at the opening ceremonies "It's the Salvation Train" for downtown economic development. But - Salvation for who? The over-riding question remains: Is this all in the public interest?

After Giles celebrated his first full-term in office, and after the taxpayer revolt against his $500,000+ privately-financed Public Relations fiasco that turned into a major screw-up, plans for an ASU satellite campus got knocked-down, million$ in investments waiting on-the-sidelines got into quiet high-gear to seriously speculate on their fortunes-to-be-made - one of the prime drivers of capital inflow is Bob Worsley, who people say won't use his own money to finance his personal and private-developer schemes and dreams.

One recently made-public proposal for what's rumored as a $40 Million project, 15 stories high with a 75-room hotel, 75 "above-market apartments, atop a 3-story parking lot and a street-level food hall, all resting in details in an MOU to convert a free public-parking lot deeded to the city years ago in perpetuity for free public parking in this parcel. The plan is outlined in yellow lines [proceed with caution]. It is now under consideration when the Mesa City Council approved a Memorandum of Understanding at the end of June for possible development that expires in one year.
Just six days before the unanimous city council approval, a new corporation registration named MACDevLLC was filed and registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission to conduct business activitities from an address listed as the 5,369 Sq Ft residence of Bob Worley who lives here in Mesa with his wife Christi Worsley.
The Drew Street Parking Lot is in the middle and in back of mostly one-story and two-story historic properties fronting on Main Street, at the bottom of the image, and just across an east-west alleyway from Center Street to the left and MacDonald Street to the right.
Its ground area is less than one acre.
Drew Street, running down the middle, is a high-traffic school zone for public charter school Heritage Academy - historic in its own right - with frontage on the west side of Center Street.
Worsley and unknown partners previously had purchased 29-35 W Main Street on the SEC of Drew/Main Street where it stood vacant for years due to a possible foreclosure action. 

In 2012 Corey Whittaker employed by the City of Mesa to do a 3D Visualization for the impact of light rail into the downtown historic area, made these images public of the study area that shows Main Street running up in the center east on the diagonal. Directly at the center point is the intersection of Drew Street with Main Street running to the right side and south.
It shows 1-story and 2-story building rooftops fronting on the south side of Main Street that have free public parking spaces for business employees and their customers behind them in the black-topped parking lots. The one in the center left connected to Drew Street, comprising less than an acre in ground footprint is where Worsley wants to site his 15-stories scheme for a hotel and apartment tower for real estate development. 

A lower height 6-story building, seen boxed-out in yellow at center left in the image to the right in the 3D visualization next to the historic Alhambra Hotel @ 43 S MacDonald Street, got nixed due to the fact that it was way out-of-scale and out-of-proportion to the desired architectural balance in this historic area.
The newest construction in the immediate area started with small and incremental growth on First Avenue [seen to the right running up and east]  with the opening of the first downtown construction in 30 years of 2014 Real Estate Design Award-Winning Encore on First @ 25 W 1st Avenue, then Phase 2 Encore On First @ 47 W 1st Avenue by Mesa Housing Associates for affordable and attainable housing, followed just last year with the historic adaptive re-use by Venue Projects/Community Development Partners of the old downtrodden 2-story hotel @ 43 S MacDonald Street on the National Register of Historic Places into the Alhambra Residence Hall for students enrolled at Benedictine University. The Encore buildings [with a third one in-the-works for market-rate housing at the SEC of MacDonald/1st Avenue are low-profile construction that fit in the 3D visualizations in the Central Main Plan. Ground-breaking on Phase3 - the new Residences on First - has for some unexplained reasons been delayed.
Any scheme to plop down a 15-story 75-room hotel/75 'above market-rate' luxury apartments is simply a non-conforming use that is way out-of-scale in the Central Main Plan.
Four years ago, the 5-story Encore On First was built at a cost of about $30 Million for 81 apartments.
It's highly improbable at this point-in-time that Worsley's Pie-In-The-Sky real estate schemes for a 15-story complex will ever getting off-the-ground or even pass the muster and citizen/neighborhood input for a review of his sketchy plans presented in a Memorandum of Understanding approved unanimously by the entire Mesa City Council on June 27, 2017. It will expire in one year. If review by the downtown community recommends that the building height get cut-down to 8-10 stories - it might not be economically feasible to convince would-be real estate speculators to risk millions in investments at the intended less-than-an-acre parking lot in an active school zone.

Perhaps the speculative risk-taking might be better re-directed to the entire city block just one block to the East on Main Street/First Avenue and Sirrine/S Hibbert that's next to the Mesa Arts Center, seen in the image to the left.
It has a lot to offer with a huge footprint that's probably the most valuable almost 10-acre piece of property here now in The New Urban Downtown Mesa.
...and it comes with a big bonus in a pre-existing 3-story parking garage owned by the city.

What was there before has disappeared with demolition work completed two weeks ago 
Leaving yet another empty and open vacant parcel of land in the heart of city.
Title to the entire city block is held by StateFarm Insurance owner and Sunbelt Holdings Chief Executive Officer John Graham, now widely recognized most recently as the developer of Portland Park in Phoenix.
He's hedging his bets with a shift to urban infill development by balancing-out $230 Million in real estate land investments along the Elliott Road Tech Corridor in East Mesa.

Mesa Elliot Technology Park Expands to 270 Acres with Land Buy

April 3, 2017

Sunbelt Investment Holdings Inc., based in San Diego, CA, acquired 67.5 acres near the corner of Ellsworth and Elliot Roads in Mesa, AZ for $11.8 million. The buy from El Dorado Holdings Inc. of Phoenix means Sunbelt now has 270 acres for its planned, mixed-use project, Mesa Elliot Technology Park. Sunbelt previously acquired approximately 203 acres about three and half years ago.
Brent Moser, Mike Sutton and Brooks Griffith with Cushman & Wakefield in Phoenix negotiated the land transaction. Meanwhile, Cushman’s Andy Markham, Mike Haenel and Phil Haenel have the marketing assignment. Markham said he expects to have a new site plan available for the expanded business park shortly ....readers might note the proximity to Eastmark is of interest in more ways than one
Link > https://www.connect.media

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Close to Mesa Arts Center appears to be the game plan for millionaires to dive into the risk pool for real estate speculation here in downtown Mesa - just make sure you know to Swim-with-The-Sharks and avoid having your real schemes turn into scams.
Play hard and take a few deep breaths before taking the plunge.