There's Chandler Court built in 1908 - in all its original glory - on the NWC Quadrant of MacDonald Street at the intersection with Main Street. It was a U-shaped open-air arcade ahead of its time termed in one description as Mesa's 'first shopping center'.
A term that would come back to haunt what was then the city's Central Business District when shopping centers morphed into suburban malls, multiplying like ground-hogs at the same time draining and taking away almost all the goods-and-services and entertainment attractions from downtown out to the fringes way beyond the city's original One-Square Mile.
Notice there are no parking lots - notice on the land behind Chandler Court spanning west from MacDonald Street to Robson is what looks like a homestead, a very large building surrounded by trees. Unfortunately it's not identified with any details . . . That site is now under consideration by the Mesa City Council for "High-End Living" in a proposed development called Eco Mesa to be constructed on the city-owned Pepper Place Parking Lot.
Notice also there is no 'old post office' on MacDonald @ Pepper Place, no I.D.E.A. Museum on Robson, no Robson Villas,and no Greyhound Bus Station on the north side of Pepper Place.
____________________________________________________________________________
HERE is an extract taken from page three of the Council Report furnished with a lot of other other attachments for the SPECIAL HEARING conducted on Thursday, October 22, 2020:
"Prior to 1960, the parcels comprising the Property accommodated several small buildings. Sometime between 1960 and 1969, the buildings were removed, and the site was converted to a surface parking lot. In 1999, due to significant slum and blight conditions on the parcels and within the surrounding area, the City Council adopted the City’s Central Business District (CBD) and the Town Center Redevelopment Area.
> The City Council renewed the designations of slum and blight by resolution adopted April 6, 2020.
The 2020 CBD renewal report by Matrix, an economic development consultant, found that
> 55.3% of parcels in the CBD had at least one blight factor, including the Property. Additionally, > 68.7% of the CBD was determined to be blighted and the crime rate within the CBD was twice that of the citywide average.
> Household income in the CBD is 25% lower than the rest of Mesa and over 50% less than many regional counterparts.
According to the report, the existence of the Town Center Redevelopment Area plus the designation of a Central Business District (CBD) on the parcels (the Property) allows the City to offer the maximum benefit of the GPLET – an eight-year full abatement of the excise tax; for which the Eco Mesa project qualifies. . ."
| File #: | 20-1003 |
| Type: | Resolution | Status: | Agenda Ready |
| In control: | City Council |
| On agenda: | 10/22/2020 |
| Title: | Approving and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) Lease Agreement, and related agreements and documents, to lease to EV Development, LLC, approximately 0.9± acres of property generally located at the southeast corner of Pepper Place and Robson after EV Development, LLC, redevelops the property into a mixed-use project, consisting of a seven-story building with commercial, market-rate residential units and a parking garage in accordance with the previously approved Development Agreement and related agreements and documents for the project. In accordance with the lease, the property will be reconveyed to EV Development, LLC after the lease term. The redevelopment and lease of the property will generate significant economic benefits to the City of Mesa. (District 4) |
| Attachments: | 1. Presentation Summary Slides, 2. Council Report, 3. Exhibit A to Council Report - Economic Impact June 2020 and Addendum, 4. Resolution, 5. GPLET Lease Agreement |
No comments:
Post a Comment