MESA NOW: Ground-Level OZones, Beers, Bars & A Boom-Boom ... Mesa becomes A Mecca for High-Priced Student Housing

Five years after the TCAJA 2017, with the pro!idea for tax credits and job creation, what you is!owas deliverable as the Money-Trap to lock in holding companies investing in their own private wealth-creation financed by public taxpayer debt obligation bonds

Here's a snippet from this blog 02 May 2018 after 10 commercial properties "changed hands" before the end of December 2017, the public finally found out who master-minded scooping up frontage on Main Street - ASU Lobbyist Matt Salmon was sitting in the background while then Arizona state Senator Bob Worsley made the pitch for approval.

Who’s Mugging Mesa?
Mega-Millionaire Bob Worsley Is Crossing The Line Mixing-Up Elected Public Office and Real Estate Speculation 

< Nothing could be more clear than this one image
Former U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon, who resigned to get hired as a high-salaried lobbyist for ASU (sitting in the background) and then-Arizona State Senator Bob Worsley forced to appear in public at a Mesa City Council Study Session back in February 2018.
Worsley and his holding companies had scooped up titles to eight commercial properties on Main Street before the end of 2017 that would only increase and appreciate in value if proposals to finance an ASU campus got taxpayer approval. 

It wasn't until April 2018 - two months later - that federal Opportunity Zones were designated and approved to include 8 census tracts in Downtown Mesa that qualified as long-neglected, distressed and low-income areas.
QUESTION:
Is this acting for self-profit that uses insider information?? 

Then there's this concept of kind of an ongoing mastermind that can build a group and a network of folks that can collectively gain personal benefits.
What are the steps that you take in order to get this off the ground?

Whether that’s a self-directed super Roth where you’re actually gonna be making investments yourself

Whether that’s a community that wants to establish a fund themselves

Whether that’s a college that wants to establish a fund or partner with somebody in order to take advantage of the Opportunity Zones

How can they can go about utilizing and leveraging their resources to create this ecosystem?

Final regulations for this new investment vehicle were only issued by the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department less than three months at the end of 2019.

5 years ago we should have realized that Hizzoner Mesa Mayor John Giles was not the mastermind of the group and the entrenched network of closely connected
"friends-and-families"
He was just trying to pull off a stage-stunt at his first term in office when Mesa taxpayers REJECTED it.
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Here was the sales-pitch bait for $63.5M

 THE UGLY OUTCOME OUTCOME August 2022 

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BLOGGER NOTE:
ASU @ MESA CITY CENTER
Project Update Overall Project Budget: $63.5M
Funding Sources: 

Proceeds from sale of City assets 

Construction sales tax 
Excise tax revenue bonds 
Economic Investment Fund

Here is the $100M 

✓. . .+ ALL THE "HAPPY-TALK" HYPE 

 

Downtown Mesa is Ready to Welcome ASU Students

August 17, 2022 at 5:14 pm

After two and a half years of construction and a $100 million investment by Mesa and ASU, the City and downtown businesses welcome students to ASU's Media and Immersive eXperience Center (MIX), 50 N. Centennial Way. The state-of-the-art facility opening to hundreds of students in film, video production and digital technology this week will have a tremendous economic impact in downtown. Direct revenue to the City from ASU is estimated to be $7.45 million annually, while indirect economic activity is expected to generate an estimated $9,18 million yearly.

"The opening of the new ASU MIX Center to students this week is an exciting milestone in the evolution of Mesa's downtown innovation district," said Mayor John Giles. "This next phase of the partnership between the City of Mesa and Arizona State University is further expanding educational opportunities and adding to a uniquely skilled workforce in our city. The state-of-the-art facility is a game-changer for downtown Mesa, offering programs that will develop technology to impact numerous industries, like gaming, film and design, along with applications that will serve healthcare, aviation and advanced manufacturing."

Downtown Mesa has seen impressive growth in recent years; attracting significant housing projects, commercial development and new businesses:

There have been 397 housing units added since 2020. Only 254 were added between 2010-2020

Four multifamily complexes are under construction totaling 867 market-rate units and $201 million in capital investment

Seven housing developments are currently in planning totaling 1,868 units

Three major commercial projects with a combined total of 31,000 square feet are under construction and two more with a combined total of 48,600 square feet are being planned

There have been 21 new businesses added since 2020 with eight more under lease or development.

"The excitement is palpable in downtown Mesa," said Nancy Hormann, President & Executive Director for the Downtown Mesa Association. "Since it was first announced that ASU was opening, the chatter over the impact has been constant between the business owners and developers. Over the last few years, the growth here has been incredible.

 

 Having a strong student base in the heart of downtown further solidifies that we have the means and stability to continue to be a major player when businesses are looking where to open up in the Metro Phoenix area."

Downtown is Mesa's innovation district - the City's historic core and where ideas are born to take us into the future. Students attending the MIX Center will be making films, designing new virtual worlds and video games and creating other immersive media experiences of all kinds. It will house The Sidney Poitier New American Film School.

"Arizona State University is thorough and strategic in assessing needs and establishing presences in the communities it serves," said ASU President Michael M. Crow. "Universities are their own, comprehensive economic engines, and with all that historic Mesa has to offer, we are proud to work with the City to open and help Mesa City Center and the surrounding area to flourish."

The MIX Center is part of the ASU at Mesa City Center complex, a collaboration between the City of Mesa and ASU. While students expand their knowledge and create new applications for film and digital technologies in the areas of healthcare, aviation, and public safety, to name a few, The Studios, 59 E. First St., are the public's front door to innovation. ASU and the City of Mesa will collaborate to foster business partnership and provide educational and professional traini LPng in entrepreneurship, digital literacy, future technology and small business.

The Plaza at Mesa City Center will create a major public civic space.

 

 It includes an interactive water feature, an iconic shade canopy over an area for the Merry Main Street ice rink and other events and a large lawn space to view movies and videos on an exterior high-resolution screen on the adjacent MIX Center".

J

 HUH -------- Go find that "expansive lawn" behind that huge concrete heat island!

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