But that's what just what staff writer Jim Walsh said in the corporate-owned The Times Media Group's East Valley Tribune in one more Spoon-Fed Story
More downtown Mesa development ready to rollOnce again back to what EVT staff writer Jim Walsh reports
"Real estate developer Tony Wall, of 3W Management in Scottsdale, said he is close to landing financing for The GRID Mesa near Main Street and Mesa Drive. . . "
Walsh also makes it public that The GRID lost a key potential tenant, Co+Hoots, a co-working space company in Phoenix, but is working on finding a replacement that will foster the creativity and collaboration envisioned by the Innovation District, Wall said.
Here's Tony Wall appearing in front of the Mesa City Council in February 2018, with Jenny Poons and her husband to sell the proposed project to city officials. At that time Wall stated he hadn't known about CO+HOOTS until three weeks before.
Apparently that "partnership" fell by the wayside and might now opt to associate programs with Benedictine University for a build-out of their campus at 225 East Main Street
_________________________________________________________________________
To extract more from Walsh's report we have more:
> "City officials view the novel seven-story combination of office space, row houses, one- and two-bedroom apartments and “micro units’’ as an important part of downtown Mesa’s renaissance."
> "They say it compliments other development, including Benedictine University next door and the new Arizona State University building near City Hall."
> "ASU’s Mesa City Center campus is viewed as the cornerstone of an Innovation District that will focus on new technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality."
The GRID lost a key potential tenant, Co+Hoots, a co-working space company in Phoenix, but is working on finding a replacement that will foster the creativity and collaboration envisioned by the Innovation District, Wall said.
“I think the Innovation District is so important to downtown. It’s going to bring new life to downtown,’’ Wall said. “We are in serious discussions with a number of innovative companies.’’
> "Jeff McVay, Mesa’s downtown transformation manager, said the Innovation District requires a learning institution, a creative business network and a place suitable for the exchange of ideas. . .
“Downtown Mesa has the bones of a great place. New, high-quality residential will put the meat on the bones and will create the human vibrancy that will support an Innovation District,’’ McVay wrote in an email.
The GRID also is located on the west side of Mesa Drive, across from The Residences at Main and Mesa Drive, under development by City Creek Reserve, the real estate division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."
> "Karrin Taylor Robson, Wall’s partner and a Mesa native, said very little new housing has been built in central Mesa for decades. She said the ASU building will help the market, but a market already exists.
“There’s pent-up demand,’’ Taylor Robson, the daughter of retired Mesa state legislator Carl Kunasek, said. “There’s no new product.’’_________________________________________________________________________________
Here's the Clinker in the development proposal, again directly from Jim Walsh:
"Wall conceded the changes in the development agreement will save him money, but he said it is more of a marketing decision than a financial decision.
“We are very, very close’’ to obtaining financing, Wall said, an obstacle in the past. He signed his first development agreement with Mesa in fall 2017.
“It’s a big project. It’s the first real private investment in downtown,’’ Wall said, adding that he considers The Residences more of a church-related project.
“We are the pioneers. It’s a hard mountain to climb.’’
BLOGGER INSERT: Exactly Who is the We ?????
Wall’s modified development agreement “represents a delay in project completion of up to one year,’’ according to a report written by McVay. It requires him to start construction by June 3 and finish by the end of December 2021.
__________________________________________________________________________
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/more-downtown-mesa-development-ready-to-roll/article_c8b412c2-44dd-11e9-bdc9-33e15129cb57.html