Here In 'The Old Donut-Hole" Parking Spaces = New Land Banks

The media blitz is on for a development atop the 3-story city-owned parking garage behind the Mesa Superior Court building on First Avenue. Just one day after the mayor's SOTC18 speech, he's thrilled [seems like John Giles is always "thrilled" and "excited" about something] to announce "the big deal" to a news crew from ABC 15 that happened to show up in the 3-acre parking lot at 300 East Main Street between the Wells Fargo building and classroom space for Benedictine University at 225 East Main.

Most people are familiar that area if only to grab a bite to eat  at Pete's Fish & Chips on the west side of Mesa Drive slightly south of the intersection with Main Street where a Valley Metro Light Rail Station is located @ NEC  with a 500-car Park N Ride parking lot.

If ever there were a BIG PRIZE parking garage looking for A BIG DEAL it's this one at the NWC of Main Street, right across the street from a vacant 10-acre entire city block that's the prime piece of real estate here in DTMesa, half-a-block east of the Mesa Arts Center. It's been cleared by demolition.
The former site for 85 years of Brown & Brown Chevrolet for 85 years, it may be a "Brownfield" that's gotta get cleaned-up.

Nonetheless, the Mesa Superior Court parking garage is getting the green light.
Does this chosen sight reflect downtown Mesa's "unique personality" in an already "hyper-localized" community?
IMAGINE MESA 
Gosh - that's a stretch of the imagination, huh? Believe it????

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Here's the press/media release from The City of Mesa Newsroom - note it is time-stamped at 12:00 AM 7 hours before the SOTC18 speech and 2 days after the City Council approved "the big deal" 

CO+HOOTS at The GRID announced at Mayor John Giles' State of the City

February 6, 2018 at 12:00 am

An innovative partnership between Palladium Enterprises and CO+HOOTS was officially announced at Mayor John Giles' State of the City breakfast.
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TWO BLOGGER INSERTS so you can see first-hand how this was presented in public:
First of all here's Jenny Poon and the developer at a City Council Study Session on 05 Feb.
So far it's attracted 21 views on YouTube for such "a big deal"

The Mesa City Council approved an agreement at it's Feb. 5 meeting - you can watch the reading of the Consent Agenda in this upload from YouTube

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Palladium Enterprises is developing The GRID, a $60 million next-level, mixed-use residential, office and restaurant project on Main Street that will bring 500 new residents to downtown Mesa. The GRID takes an under-utilized City of Mesa asset, the Pomeroy parking garage, and turns it into a thriving downtown neighborhood and economic engine for Mesa. Palladium's partnership with CO+HOOTS brings the globally-recognized coworking community to downtown Mesa.
CO+HOOTS will occupy 14,000 square feet of coworking space at The GRID and, in partnership with Benedictine University at Mesa, will provide mentorships, internships and entrepreneurial experiences for business students.
"This is a big deal," Mayor John Giles said. "We are thrilled to be welcoming The GRID and CO+HOOTS to downtown Mesa. With hundreds of new residents living at The GRID, CO+HOOTS' cultivating a new coworking community and Benedictine University at Mesa students gaining insight into entrepreneurship, soon downtown Mesa will be known as a dynamic and well-balanced community that thrives on innovation. Congratulations to Palladium Enterprises and CO+HOOTS on a project that I can't wait to break ground on."
In just seven years, CO+HOOTS has become the second ranked coworking community in the nation and has facilitated the creation and growth of more than 1,000 companies. Some of those companies have grown into multi-million-dollar operations.
"We believe in the City of Mesa's commitment to transforming its downtown into a vibrant urban core," CO+HOOTS Founder Jenny Poon said. "We love downtown Mesa's already hyper-localized community and believe a CO+HOOTS location that will reflect downtown Mesa's distinctive personality will be a great fit. Among many of our goals, the Mesa location will support and bring together the area's entrepreneurial, startup and small business community; create jobs; provide free business and technology education through our nonprofit, CO+HOOTS Foundation; and become a major economic driver for Mesa."
The GRID and CO+HOOTS are key in Mesa's development of an innovation district. The area around Benedictine University will be transformed into a thriving downtown neighborhood and economic engine that will help create an entrepreneurial ecosystem where people can live, work, eat and relax.
"We believe that bringing CO+HOOTS into The GRID, located next to Benedictine University, is a game changer for the Downtown Mesa business community," Palladium Enterprises Manager Tony Wall said. "We are collaborative developers and we believe in Downtown Mesa. CO+HOOTS has joined us in this belief and this tremendous collaboration."
The GRID is expected to break ground this year with CO+HOOTS opening it's doors in Fall 2019.
> For more information about The GRID contact Tony Wall at tony@palladiumaz.com and
> For more about CO+HOOTS contact Emily Liu at emily@cohoots.com.
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Maybe you, dear readers need some help wrapping your head around that, so here it is from the ABC15 crew with a reporter and camera guy in the parking lot in front of the parking garage, Mayor John Giles stepping out his office door, and some other on-camera selected talent. All of them appear to have gotten the right talking-points.
Take a look at the video   

Anchor tenant announced for $60M mixed-use development in downtown Mesa

Justin Pazera, Morgan Tanabe

3:48 PM, 07 Feb 2018 Updated 7:44 PM 
Co+Hoots will move into a 14,000-square-foot co-working space, and will provide mentorships and internships for business students, a media release explained.
"We believe in the City of Mesa's commitment to transforming its downtown into a vibrant urban core," CO+HOOTS founder Jenny Poon said. 
Here's the link > ABC15 News

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It's one of the fastest "big deals" your MesaZona has never seen! And big promises for jobs

Mesa juggles downtown growth, livability             

By Wayne Schutsky Tribune Staff  11 Feb 2018 Updated 12 Feb 2018

Phoenix-based Co-Hoots is in negotiations to occupy 13,000 square feet in the development ­– which is currently under a memorandum of understanding between the city and developer 3W Management LLC.
The City Council was considering an amendment to that agreement on Feb. 5 that would provide job-creation incentives to Co-Hoots that could total up to $375,000 and require the business to move into The Grid by Dec. 30, 2020.
In order to receive the incentives, Co-Hoots would have to create a minimum of 500 new jobs over 10 years with at least 300 of them going to Mesa residents.
It also would have to create at least 25 new businesses over that time frame, host workshops for entrepreneurs, provide 15 scholarships to Mesa high school students and work collaboratively with a Mesa university
Read more > http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/mesa juggles