Downtown concert hall hope ends on sour note
By Gary Nelson, Tribune Contributor
Here's the story by Gary Nelson written for public consumption: East Valley Tribune
Plans for a world-class concert hall and music-education campus in downtown Mesa have taken a major detour after a city panel cleared the way for commercial-residential project on the site.
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Bob Worsley, a former state senator, said fundraising has been a challenge.
“It’s been very difficult to raise the $200 million to build Consolari,” Worsley told the Tribune. “It will take a lot more time and effort.”
“There are several other locations we are considering as alternatives that would be wonderful in downtown Mesa for such a facility,” he added.
“We’re also working with ASU, with their new campus, and exploring what the future might hold for acoustic concert halls as the world changes and becomes more digital,” Worsley said, adding:
“It may become something different than what we had anticipated and what we would have built the last six or seven years, with new technology and virtual reality.”
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The project originally had been proposed for 10 acres formerly occupied for decades by the Brown & Brown Chevrolet dealership, just east of the Mesa Arts Center.
But that site now is on track to become a development that could add as many as 350 units to the already booming downtown housing market.
The concert hall, named Consolari, was proposed in 2013 by Mesa resident Christi Worsley as not only a concert venue but also as a music-education center with ties to New York City’s Lincoln Center and local school systems.
There also were discussions of a research component in hopes of harnessing music to combat autism, dementia and other ailments.
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This rendering of the proposed concert hall in downtown Mesa projected an eye-popping design that would have complimented the equally visually impressive Mesa Arts Center.
