Ooops! So, what is ZenCity??. . .Here's the latest Pre-Development Rendering for 29 W Main
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A PLACE TO FIND ENLIGHTENMENT
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Why The Drew Street Parking Lot Is Worsley's Worse Site-Selection For His Real Estate Empire Schemes
Just five years ago in preparation for a 3D Visualization study by Corey Whittaker on the impact of light rail extending into the downtown historic area for a Central Main Plan, a similar proposal for a 6-story mixed-use building in the adjacent BofA parking lot got nixed
When a long-time Arizona politician who's elected to public
office while at the same time acquiring a big portfolio of properties on
Main Street here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa as 'a private
developer' [who happens to be married to Utah-money family-interests],
there's bound to be questions asked about possible
conflicts-of-interest.
That is unless these schemes can "fly under-the-radar" during
months of undisclosed and behind-the-scenes meetings with city officials
and cohorts of friends in high places. There could be scandals ahead in the volatile mix.
After the rejection in November 2016 by Mesa taxpayers to approve sales/transaction tax increases to fund a $200 Million Pie-In-The-Sky shaky proposal to radically transform downtown into a satellite campus for ASU that devoured downtown Tempe, preceded by another preposterous plan the year before for City Center Urban Plaza Mesa that was only 30%-funded, an un-named group of investors snatched-up title to real estate with offers to purchase at $100 per square foot properties along the path of the Valley Metro Light Rail Central Mesa Extension into the historic downtown area two years ago with Mayor John Giles proclaiming at the opening ceremonies "It's the Salvation Train" for downtown economic development. But - Salvation for who? The over-riding question remains: Is this all in the public interest?
After Giles celebrated his first full-term in office, and after the taxpayer revolt against his $500,000+ privately-financed Public Relations fiasco that turned into a major screw-up, plans for an ASU satellite campus got knocked-down, million$ in investments waiting on-the-sidelines got into quiet high-gear to seriously speculate on their fortunes-to-be-made - one of the prime drivers of capital inflow is Bob Worsley, who people say won't use his own money to finance his personal and private-developer schemes and dreams.
One recently made-public proposal for what's rumored as a $40
Million project, 15 stories high with a 75-room hotel, 75
"above-market apartments, atop a 3-story parking lot and a street-level
food hall, all resting in details in an MOU to convert a free
public-parking lot deeded to the city years ago in perpetuity for free
public parking in this parcel. The plan is outlined in yellow lines
[proceed with caution]. It is now under consideration when the Mesa City
Council approved a Memorandum of Understanding at the end of June for
possible development that expires in one year.
INSERT
Back-to-the-future Fast-Forward: Game On for another ASU Public Relations Ploy two years after Mesa taxpayers REJECTED the first. Will the banks go for it this time? ____________________________________________________________________________________________
The eight-building acquisition was purchased with the Caliber Diversified Opportunity Fund II, LP (the “Fund”). The Fund offers accredited investors and registered investment advisors (RIAs) direct access to invest in “middle market” U.S. commercial real estate assets that can deliver attractive risk-adjusted return through a combination of current income and capital appreciation.
Just six days before the unanimous city council approval, a new
corporation registration named MACDevLLC was filed and registered with
the Arizona Corporation Commission to conduct business activitities from
an address listed as the 5,369 Sq Ft residence of Bob Worley who lives
here in Mesa with his wife Christi Worsley.
The Drew Street Parking Lot is in the middle and in back of mostly
one-story and two-story historic properties fronting on Main Street, at
the bottom of the image, and just across an east-west alleyway from
Center Street to the left and MacDonald Street to the right.
Its ground area is less than one acre.
Drew Street, running down the middle, is a high-traffic school zone for public charter school Heritage Academy - historic in its own right - with frontage on the west side of Center Street.
Worsley and unknown partners previously had purchased 29-35 W Main
Street on the SEC of Drew/Main Street where it stood vacant for years
due to a possible foreclosure action.
In 2012 Corey Whittaker employed by the City of Mesa to do a 3D
Visualization for the impact of light rail into the downtown historic
area, made these images public of the study area that shows Main Street
running up in the center east on the diagonal. Directly at the center
point is the intersection of Drew Street with Main Street running to the
right side and south.
It shows 1-story and 2-story building rooftops fronting on the
south side of Main Street that have free public parking spaces for
business employees and their customers behind them in the black-topped
parking lots. The one in the center left connected to Drew Street,
comprising less than an acre in ground footprint is where Worsley wants
to site his 15-stories scheme for a hotel and apartment tower for real
estate development.
A lower height 6-story building, seen boxed-out in yellow at
center left in the image to the right in the 3D visualization next to
the historic Alhambra Hotel @ 43 S MacDonald Street, got nixed due to
the fact that it was way out-of-scale and out-of-proportion to the
desired architectural balance in this historic area.
The newest construction in the immediate area started with small
and incremental growth on First Avenue [seen to the right running up and
east] with the opening of the first downtown construction in 30 years
of 2014 Real Estate Design Award-Winning Encore on First @ 25 W 1st
Avenue, then Phase 2 Encore On First @ 47 W 1st Avenue by Mesa Housing
Associates for affordable and attainable housing, followed just last
year with the historic adaptive re-use by Venue Projects/Community
Development Partners of the old downtrodden 2-story hotel @ 43 S
MacDonald Street on the National Register of Historic Places into the
Alhambra Residence Hall for students enrolled at Benedictine University.
The Encore buildings [with a third one in-the-works for market-rate
housing at the SEC of MacDonald/1st Avenue are low-profile construction
that fit in the 3D visualizations in the Central Main Plan.
Ground-breaking on Phase3 - the new Residences on First - has for some
unexplained reasons been delayed.
Any scheme to plop down a 15-story 75-room hotel/75 'above
market-rate' luxury apartments is simply a non-conforming use that is
way out-of-scale in the Central Main Plan.
Four years ago, the 5-story Encore On First was built at a cost of about $30 Million for 81 apartments.
It's highly improbable at this point-in-time that Worsley's
Pie-In-The-Sky real estate schemes for a 15-story complex will ever
getting off-the-ground or even pass the muster and citizen/neighborhood
input for a review of his sketchy plans presented in a Memorandum of
Understanding approved unanimously by the entire Mesa City Council on
June 27, 2017. It will expire in one year. If review by the downtown
community recommends that the building height get cut-down to 8-10
stories - it might not be economically feasible to convince would-be
real estate speculators to risk millions in investments at the intended
less-than-an-acre parking lot in an active school zone.
Perhaps the speculative risk-taking might be better re-directed
to the entire city block just one block to the East on Main
Street/First Avenue and Sirrine/S Hibbert that's next to the Mesa Arts
Center, seen in the image to the left.
It has a lot to offer with a huge footprint that's probably the
most valuable almost 10-acre piece of property here now in The New Urban
Downtown Mesa.
...and it comes with a big bonus in a pre-existing 3-story parking garage owned by the city.
What was there before has disappeared with demolition work completed two weeks ago
Leaving yet another empty and open vacant parcel of land in the heart of city.
Title to the entire city block is held by StateFarm Insurance
owner and Sunbelt Holdings Chief Executive Officer John Graham, now
widely recognized most recently as the developer of Portland Park in
Phoenix.
He's hedging his bets with a shift to urban infill development
by balancing-out $230 Million in real estate land investments along the
Elliott Road Tech Corridor in East Mesa.
Mesa Elliot Technology Park Expands to 270 Acres with Land Buy
April 3, 2017
Sunbelt Investment Holdings Inc., based in San Diego, CA, acquired 67.5
acres near the corner of Ellsworth and Elliot Roads in Mesa, AZ for $11.8 million.
The buy from El Dorado Holdings Inc. of Phoenix means Sunbelt now has
270 acres for its planned, mixed-use project, Mesa Elliot Technology
Park. Sunbelt previously acquired approximately 203 acres about three
and half years ago.
Brent Moser, Mike Sutton and Brooks Griffith with Cushman &
Wakefield in Phoenix negotiated the land transaction. Meanwhile,
Cushman’s Andy Markham, Mike Haenel and Phil Haenel have the marketing
assignment. Markham said he expects to have a new site plan available
for the expanded business park shortly ....readers might note the
proximity to Eastmark is of interest in more ways than one
Link > https://www.connect.media
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Close to Mesa Arts Center appears to be the game plan for
millionaires to dive into the risk pool for real estate speculation here
in downtown Mesa - just make sure you know to Swim-with-The-Sharks and
avoid having your real schemes turn into scams.
Play hard and take a few deep breaths before taking the plunge.
ZenCity
| Property Owner | Caliber Cos. |
|---|---|
| Developer | ZenniHome |
| Stories | 6 |
| Housing Units | 90 |
| Parking Spaces | 23 |
RELATED CONTENT
‘ZenCity’ could bring unique structure to downtown
"If all goes according to plan, downtown Mesa will be the state’s first site of an apartment complex created from Arizona-made two-bedroom and studio homes stacked and connected together like LEGOs to form two five-story midrise towers on Main Street.
ZenniHomes, founded by businessman and former state lawmaker Bob Worsley in 2019, has signed a deal with an owner of a historic property on Main Street to create a 90-unit apartment complex on top of existing basement and ground level commercial spaces.
The modular homes would be sent to Mesa from ZenniHomes’ new factory in Page in Northern Arizona at the site of the former coal-fired Navajo Generating Station power plant, which closed in 2019.
✓ ZenniHomes’ residential units are 320 square feet for the studios and 640 for the 2-bedroom and are built to the dimensions of shipping containers to reduce the costs of construction and transport.
The company says the individual units are ideal for first-time homebuyers, retirees, rentals and resort living.
But it is also a “developer solution for affordable housing” because the apartments can be stacked together for up to five stories and 100 units.
✓ In June, Mesa’s Board of Appeals approved several form-based code variances for the company’s “ZenCity” plan in Mesa that it said were needed to construct the project on “an existing site with its unique and innovative construction techniques while maintaining the ground floor and basement commercial uses,” documents submitted to the city stated.
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Recently, the property owner announced that a deal has been signed with ZenniHomes to install the units and estimated the project would be completed next year.
✓ ZenniHomes advertises its product as good for the earth and the economy while promising to deliver “luxury, style and sophistication.”
The units, listed currently for $75,000 and $100,000, respectively, might also help housing-starved communities all over the country add workforce residential units at lower costs than conventional apartments.
A representative for ZenniHomes told the board of appeals that downtown Mesa is currently experiencing high demand for new residential units from “urban professionals,” students attending classes downtown and workers in downtown’s restaurants and boutiques.
By manufacturing the modular homes in Page, Worsley said in the release, ZenniHomes would be “reshoring manufacturing from China to an opportunity zone investment at the Navajo Generating Station.”
Before it closed, the Page coal plant employed over 500 workers, including many people from the nearby Navajo Nation, so the loss of jobs was an economic blow to the region.
If ZenniHomes ramps up production, it could help replace some of the industrial jobs lost after the closure.
✓✓ The investments in Page and downtown Mesa also has tax benefits for investors, as the two locations are within designated opportunity zones that allow investors to delay or eliminate federal capital gains taxes on income they put into opportunity zone projects.
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For Mesa’s ZenCity stacked units concept, ZenniHomes has partnered with opportunity zone investment company Caliber to bring the project to a property Caliber owns in downtown Mesa at 29 W. Main Street.
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CH Mesa Holdings was registered on June 27, 2017 in Delaware.
Maricopa County Recorder documents shows that CH Mesa Holdings, LLC, a registered limited liability corporation (File Number: 6458344) filed deeds for the following properties:
| APN | Address | Last Deed Date |
| 138-35-015 | 114 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 10/03/2017 |
| 138-35-016 120 | 120 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 10/03/2017 |
| 138-36-008A | 18 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 10/30/2017 |
| 138-36-012 48 | 48 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 07/19/2017 |
| 138-42-022 155 | 155 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 07/07/2017 |
| 138-42-030 | 137 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 12/12/2017 |
| 138-55-004 | 202 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 10/03/2017 |
| 138-55-009 | 206 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201 | 10/03/2017 |
According to the Arizona Corporation Commission, as of 2017, Worsley has been registered as a member of Lyons Development LLC.
Lyons Development LLC registered the following entities in 2017:
| L21665169 | LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC | MESA 114 W MAIN LLC |
| L21757686 | LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC | MESA 137 W MAIN LLC |
| L21853908 | LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC | MESA 48 W MAIN LLC |
| L21638767 | LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC | MESA 155 W MAIN LLC |
| L21657535 | LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC | MESA 18 W MAIN LLC |
[View Worsley 2018 Financial Disclosure Statement]
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In 2017, Caliber began betting big on the revitalization of downtown Mesa, eventually purchasing 10 buildings totaling 160,000 square feet.
Brian Snider, senior vice president of real estate at Caliber, said the firm believed downtown Mesa “had the potential for pretty dynamic change.”
“I think it’s still emerging, but I think all the pieces are going to come together,” Snider said of downtown. “When we get into the new year, we get more into the potential of the university.”
A key element of downtown’s transformation will be enticing the influx of students and professionals in downtown to stay after work hours and explore the burgeoning craft brew and restaurant scene.
Other Caliber projects recently opened or announced will contribute to this nightlife.
Earlier this year, Caliber announced downtown leases with Level 1 Arcade Bar, a venue featuring fully restored arcade and pinball machines along with a full menu and bar, and Copper City Spirits, an Arizona distillery that uses local ingredients.
Caliber announced last week that it has signed a lease with Sonoran Rows, a Craft Malthouse, which will be located at 18 W. Main. Set to open in the second half of 2023, Sonoran Rows will serve as a working malthouse along with a restaurant and bar operating in more than 15,000 square feet along with 3,000 square feet of patio space.
Malting is the process of soaking and germinating grains to release enzymes that enhance the grain for brewing and baking.
In a release, Caliber said the Sonoran Rows plans to malt 25 tons of Arizona grown barley and other grains in the traditional style of floor malting each week. The malted grains can be used by local breweries, distilleries and restaurants.
> Snider suspects Sonoran Rows will be working with other players in Mesa’s craft beer scene. Craft breweries “are a fairly tight network, and they see a lot of synergy being together and seeing that brewmaster atmosphere,” he said.
Caliber also is working with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to build an entertainment-residential district on 10 acres of the Talking Stick Resort between Mesa and Scottsdale off the Loop 101.
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✓ Caliber has found users for many of the historic buildings it purchased in 2017, but Snider said it hasn’t been easy getting them renovated.
“These have been challenging buildings. They’re old,” he said, but “we’re largely on top of that and moving forward with getting these tenants in.”
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