Was that "Vision Thing" and "Imagine Mesa" all a Hoax? It was amusing to say the very least even when there was a position created to make Jeff McVay The Director of Downtown Transformation. He's got not too much to show for that. Then again, former mayor Scott Smith wanted to create the impression that downtown Mesa - The Old Donut-Hole - was boring . . . with the current mayor John Giles now serving his second year in office, he's yet to deliver on his promise to make Mesa vibrant and exciting.
During the more than 12 years of tenure for Chris Brady, the high-salaried Chief Executive Officer of the City of Mesa, public debt has mushroomed from less than $40M in 2006 to over $170M now in 2018. . . that again is not much to show for the investment of taxpayers dollars downtown starting with a 1% QUALITY OF LIFE sales tax to finance the $100-Million Mesa Arts Center that opened in 2005 to create what was called an Arts-and-Entertainment District. In 2012 taxpayers again got aboard and approved more tax increases to bring Valley Metro Light Rail Service into the Central Business District - The Old Donut-Hole now qualifies as a distressed neighborhood. Whoops! Make that an Opportunity Zone!
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The powers-that-be inside Mesa City Hall have created a failing Sense of Place Downtown (there's no uptown or mid-town to speak of). City planners have put out more Pie-In-The-Sky proposals: A New Town Square for An Urbanizing Mesa . . . making Mesa "a college town" inviting in five institutions of higher learning where only one, Benedictine University, survives on a lifeline of support, and re-making Mesa into a satellite campus for ASU that taxpayers REJECTED IN 2016  |
| Commercial Property Assembly, part of Caliber's "Wealth Creation" plans along light rail |
Now a revival-of-sorts is underway outside the crumbling fake-fronts and facades all along Main Street during the last decades that drove out commerce to the outlying suburbs and boombergs within the perimeter of the outlying outer and inner loops of 202 and east-west tech corridors. Here in the image to the right are 8 parts of the Caliber Wealth Creation Fund's Downtown Development Portfolio.
Looks like the newly-revealed Massive Mormon Temple Make-Over where taxpayer-financed Valley Metro Light Rail service has become The Salvation Train for the For-Profit branch of the posterity of The Pioneers.
Ground Zero = Expanding the LDS real estate empire. It certainly looks real from accounts of news conferences in Salt Lake City, in a cache of spoon-fed stories in mainstream media, and in the same video used in two of those reports yesterday.
'Intermission' is over (hope nobody 'ate-your-lunch' during the break!). The Zion Curtain has now been raised after the opening acts for the Transformation of Downtown Mesa encountered some unexpected glitches, production problems and technical difficulties drawing unfavorable reviews from both the public audience and the many critics.
"The Revelation"
. . . and the next act
"Posterity Fulfils The Promise To Lock-Down Another Corner of The Kingdom"
What's Next?
A Disruption in that Vision Thing . . .
The for-profit arm of the of the Mormon Church has not disclosed any financial details, terms or deals, but it looks like they can break-ground on this faster than other unsolicited developer proposals that want to take-over downtown.
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< Here's the leadership of a group called The East Valley Partnership (missing Roc Arnett)
On the left is former Mesa City Manager Mike Hutchinson
In the center is Denny Barney, incoming president who's on the Board of Supervisors of Maricopa County and a major principal in Arcus Private Capital Solutions
On the right John Lewis outgoing president, former mayor Gilbert who resigned to go on a LDS mission to Cambodia.
(They already cornered the rest of real estate downtown)
There were 'sneak previews' published in almost all the mainstream media that cover Mesa presenting details at a news conference today.
Plans for this development incorporate nearly ever form that were envisioned in unsolicited private developer proposals that involved making deals with the city using taxpayer-funded 'incentives' and substantial 'give-aways'.
All those same features can cannibalize and jeopardize the risks of Ozone investors in the close-by project called The Grid, as well as plans by AZ State Senator and Habitat Metro for a 15-story luxury hotel/mixed-use plan atop the one-acre Drew Street Parking Lot
According to these details from an article by AZ Central reporter Lily Altavena:
What's included:
- 240 market rate rental apartments, with 20 studio units, 110 one-bedroom units and 110 two-bedroom units.
- 12 market-rate rental townhomes, all three-bedroom units averaging 1,300 square-feet.
- Retail space on the ground floor of the redevelopment totaling 12,500 square-feet.
- Amenities for the apartments and townhomes including a business center, garden areas, outdoor cooking and fire pits and security.
- Underground parking to accommodate 450 cars, plus on-street parking. The parking exceeds the amount required under city code for the planned uses, according to City Creek.
- An 18,000 square-foot temple visitor's center and family history center on the corner of Main and LeSueur Streets.
Mormon Temple unveils redevelopment plans near downtown Mesa
Posted:
Updated:
May 31, 2018 6:23 PM MST
The 4 1/2-acre project will create a mixed-use neighborhood that will include 240 apartments and 12 townhomes.
(Source: Dale Gardon Design)
The new development will be located across the street from the Mormon Temple, and right along Mesa's main street light rail corridor. (Source: Dale Gardon Design)
