It's A Wonder! Mesa Bread Bakery Acquired for $120 Million

Alpine Valley Breads at 300 E Southern Avenue, started nineteen years ago by a health-conscience family with young children, had a vision to bake bread that was nutritious, natural, organic, and flavorful.
It's an interesting turn of events and a big change in consumer buying preferences that Flower Foods, the big baked goods distribution conglomerate that acquired the Hostess empire with its brands Twinkles and Wonder Bread for $360 Million in 2013, has recently been on a very big buying spree for bakers of whole grain, natural, nonGmo, organic and kosher-certified bread bakeries: $120 Million for Alpine Valley Breads just a couple of days ago and Dave's Killer Breads for $275 Million last month.



Who knows, in spite of the wide popularity of Wonder Bread [who doesn't remember peanut butter/jelly sandwiches packed in their school lunch boxes?]
The family wanted something else: A bread that was free from artificial ingredients, chemicals and preservatives. Their philosophy was simple; great bread is made with just five carefully selected ingredients, whole grains, salt, yeast, water, and honey.

In 1995 Alpine Valley Bread opened the first bakery in a strip mall in Mesa, Arizona and soon captured a growing local market and loyal customers. Opportunity knocked in 1996, Alpine Valley Breads were now being sold in grocery stores. As demand increased Swiss Oven Bakery joined the Alpine Valley Bread group in 2003. Together, Alpine Valley Bread and Swiss Oven were able to provide the right bakery product to a wide range of customers and still maintain our excellence in quality and service.
Today we are proud to say that after two facility moves from the strip mall, Alpine Valley Breads has flourished to a nation-wide customer base. We are recognized as a leading producer of certified organic and All Natural breads in the United States. We continue to expand into new markets and we have remained true to our beginning philosophy of baking great nutritious, natural, organic, and flavorful breads, from the finest carefully selected ingredients.

[Information from company's website alpinevalley.com]

The company believes in giving back to the community when possible in a big way - over forty organizations benefit from Alpine Valley Breads generous philanthropy as you can see from a list on their site.
Readers might also take notice that the company employs 282 with projected income of $95 Million for 2015 . . .
That's a lot of bread, folks.

Heritage Academy: Public Charter School Teaching & Promoting Religion??

According to a report   by Heather Clark yesterday in the Christian News Network 

Church-State Separation Group Demands School Remove God from Government Class

MESA, Ariz. — A prominent church-state separation group is demanding that officials at an Arizona high school cease referencing Christianity in its government class under threat of a lawsuit.
“In sum, we have confirmed that Heritage Academy’s mandatory government class for seniors teaches and promotes religion—through written material, oral instruction, and assignments students must complete—in plain violation of the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions,” the letter reads.

You can read the 5-page letter and all the attachments from Americans United for Separation of Church and State by going to this link:
 https://www.au.org/files/Demand%20letter%20to%20Heritage%20Academy%20--%20with%20exhibits.pdf

Copies of the letter and attachments were also sent to:

• Whitney Chapa Executive Director Arizona State Board for Charter Schools P.O. Box 18328 Phoenix, AZ 85009 whitney.chapa@asbcs.az.gov 
• Diane Douglas State Superintendent of Public Instruction Arizona Department of Education 1535 W. Jefferson Phoenix, AZ 85007 adeinbox@azed.gov

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. 

Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

On August 28, 2015 Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent out this press release:

Ariz. Public Charter School Must Stop Promoting Religion In Government Classes, Americans United SaysHeritage Academy In Mesa Teaches Religion Instead of Civics, Says Church-State Watchdog

This is the third letter Americans United has sent to Heritage Academy. 

The first was mailed in December 2013 and the second in June 2014. Heritage Academy Principal Earl Taylor Jr. has denied any wrongdoing.

The letter asks for a response within two weeks and warns that Americans United is prepared to file suit if Heritage Academy does not cease its promotion of religion. 

Founder/Principal Earl Taylor

The same allegations were written about back in July of 2014 in the Arizona Republic
www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/ mesa/2014/07/14/mesa-charter-school-religion/12615041/.
The National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) is a conservative, religious-themed constitutionalist organization, founded by Latter-Day Saint political writer Cleon Skousen. It was formerly known as The Freemen Institute.
Impeached Arizona governor Evan Mecham was also a regular donor to the center.In the early 1990s, an effort to build a conservative community in Southern Utah to house the center collapsed amid the developer's unfulfilled promises.

The NCCS has found a number of new organizational allies among Constitutionalist groups such as the John Birch Society, the Eagle Forum, and the Oath Keepers.

Heritage Academy charter school in Mesa, Arizona is partial to the writings of Cleon Skousen, a conservative Mormon theologian and former FBI agent who declared that the founding of the United States was a divine miracle.
Don’t know Skousen? If you were a Tea Party–type, you might; he is largely read in those circles. Christina Botteri, a spokeswoman for the California-based National Tea Party Federation, was quoted in this article by Cathryn Creno in The Republic to say that one of Skousen’s books is considered “a handbook of tea-party ideals” and specifically inspired her to join the Tea Party movement. TV and radio personality Glenn Beck, who rediscovered religion in the late 1990s when he became a Mormon, is a fan of Skousen and wrote in the foreword for Skousen’s The 5,000-Year Leap that the book was “divinely inspired.”

According to the profile for Heritage Academy available on Public School Review 

• Minority enrollment is 19% of the student body (majority Hispanic), which is less than the state average of 58%.
• The school district's 67% graduation rate is lower than the AZ state average of 74%.
• 37% Male / 63%Female
• Mesa, AZ public schools have a diversity score of 0.59, which is higher than the Arizona average of 0.42. Heritage Academy's diversity score is .33
• AZ School average for hispanic students is 43% while Heritage Academy's school average is 13%
• Heritage Academy has a white enrollment of 81%, while state average is 42%
• Spending/student of $6,588 is less than the state average of $8,323.

TEA PART PATRIOTS 
HERE IN MESA??
New Old Glory and a new flag for the State of Arizona are hoisted up on a flagpole at the school entrance on 32 S Center Street - they're there 24 hours/day, not being raised or lowered every day as is the usual custom with flags on public school premises.
But, any inquiring mind might want to know why the Tea Party Don't Tread On Me yellow flag is raised on a flagpole 24 hours/day in front of the classroom annex building right next door at 42 S Center Street.

Does anyone know if there's a requirement, or a permission, to display the Gadsden Flag on public education school buildings in Arizona??

BTW the Gadsden Flag has a history and a heritage going back to South Carolina, just like the recent much-in-the-news reactions to the Confederate Flag that was removed by state buildings.

In its place, up went this flag:

Courtyard Towers Sells for $21 Million

Press release just out 08 Sept 2015 @ 10:17 a.m. EST

Greystone Real Estate Advisors Closes $21M Sale of 175-Unit Mesa, AZ Seniors Housing Community
See entire release with this link:
http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/09/08/766738/10148543/en/Greystone-Real-Estate-Advisors-Closes-21M-Sale-of-175-Unit-Mesa-AZ-Seniors-Housing-Community.html
NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greystone, a real estate lending, investment and advisory company with offices in News York City, today announced its Real Estate Advisors group has closed the sale of Courtyard Towers in Mesa, AZ for $20,864,569.Sierra Capital and Investment Inc purchased the seniors housing property from Harrison Street Real Estate Capital on June 30.
In a listing of recent deals posted online by Western Capital located in Holladay, Utah a bridge loan of $13 Million was provided for the purchase of Courtyard Towers.
A distresses property?
Rumors have circulated for months that the property was only 50% occupied and ripe for some kind of restructuring eliciting a number of investor interests for conversion to student housing or to a mixed-use condo development.
Perhaps this very recent transaction is another signal for opportunities of real estate development and increasing property values along the extension of Valley Metro Light Rail transit into downtown Mesa.
Whether this is an acquisition or a disposition remains to be seen.

According to crunchbase.com Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, LLC is a real estate private equity firm founded in 2005. The firm currently owns real estate assets which includes over 14,500 student housing beds, 4,000 senior housing / assisted living units, over 60,900 self storage units, 2,800 dry & wet boat storage and 855,000 square feet of medical office space.
See more at: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/harrison-street-real-estate-capital#sthash.KCINQ5Q2.dpuf

Just last month the company acquired Dwight Lofts, a 771-bed, student housing property located in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood in a transaction of $105 Million.

Currently the firm and its affiliates manage approximately $7.5 billion in property assets and publicly traded securities through multiple investment vehicles on behalf of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Public & Corporate Pension Funds, Endowments, Insurance Companies, Foundations and Family Offices.

Behind The Scene @ Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum

For two new shows on the 10th Anniversary of Mesa Arts Center

Free Online Market Intelligence Tool = MesaSizeUp

According to an insert in Openline, a bi-monthly newsletter for August/September 2015 for Mesa Utility customers, the  City of Mesa and the Mesa Chamber of Commerce have launched a free online tool designed to help Mesa businesses grow by making smarter decisions using data analysis.
The site www.MesaSizeUp.com allows businesses to easily obtain market research and comparative business data on revenues, salaries, competitors, customer demographics and aggregates millions of data points [Whoa! Millions, that's a lot] from public and private sources to provide four main tools:

Performance Benchmarking
Competitive Assessment
Advertising Analysis
Demographic Analysis
If you choose to register, you can receive data update alerts quarterly.You can sign up to register on the site to have an alert sent to revise your analyses with the most current data.

Bill Jabjiniak, Economic Development Director, said "Our goal is to help Mesa businesses succeed by making it simple to access relevant and powerful data to make sound business decisions."

If you want to learn more about data points and visualization, the book image to the left is highly recommended

MesaSizeUp is powered by SizeUpLBI, a service of GIS Planning
http://www.gisplanning.com/about.html

Read all the news about GIS Planning:
http://www.gisplanning.com/InNews/in-the-news.html

 

For additional site searches you can also use this link that is associated with the Arizona Commerce Authority http://www.arizonaprospector.com/



Channel Change-Up: BBC News Magazine Minor League Baseball Season Here in Mesa



Scanning news from around the world, your MesaZona blogger was surprised by the Brits - with favorite national sports like cricket, rugby and football [soccer] - would even bother to write about minor league summer baseball here at Hohokam Stadium.
"Minor" league? And rookies? And that sends the North American reporter for world broadcaster BBC News here to Arizona where the average temperatures for over 100 days is over 100 degrees and teams are practicing and sweating.

And how many "locals" even know about the 10-week season for the Arizona League that started in July? In a report September 5, 2015 BBC says that "And yet in Arizona, this is baseball weather. Every June, hundreds gather in spring training complexes run by Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises on the outskirts of Phoenix to play . . .  It's the bottom rung of professional baseball, the farthest point from the big leagues one can inhabit while still drawing a paycheque.
The League of Fire, as it's sometimes called, is populated by a collection of teenagers fresh out of high school, former university-level players, recent arrivals from overseas teams and veterans working their way back from injury."

Read the whole article with this link: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34110560

BBC's North American reporter Anthony Zurcher was here for a game  between the Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics  with these remarks: "There are no cheering crowds. Although admission is free, few area residents know about the games - and those who do aren't particularly interested in braving the evening heat when there are no food vendors, no public address announcers and no jumbo-sized scoreboards showing player names or instant replays.
Often the games look more like a community softball match than the proving ground for future stars."
More than half the 37 players on the A's hail from Latin and South America, so Spanish often is the primary language in the dugout. In the major leagues 29% of the players are Latino.
There are stories of success mentioned:
Dakota Chalmers - an 18-year-old from Georgia - is just starting to learn about the endurance test that is a professional baseball season. During the evening's game, he sits at a table behind home plate, jotting down information on the night's starting pitcher, Xavier Altamirano.
Just a few months ago, Chalmers was pitching in high school. Now, as Oakland's third selection in the 2015 player draft, he's the second-youngest player on the A's team. He's also a millionaire.
Although the standard pay for Arizona League players is meagre, high draft picks are offered a one-time signing bonus. Chalmers, who can throw a baseball 94 miles per hour and mix in slower pitches that swerve and dive as a batter swings, pocketed $1.4m to play for the A's.
The City of Mesa and the teams using Hohokam Stadium are seeing a $99 million dollar investment paying off.
 

What Works: Housing First for Homeless Veterans

Just received about an hour ago via email from City of Mesa Newsroom:
Homeless Veteran gets home
thanks to Housing Mesa's Heroes Program
Post date: 09/02/2015 @ 11:55

Connect to the city newsroom with this link for more details, information, images and speeches http://www.mesaaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/456/

Group image from Mayor's Challenge

Since 2010, there has been a 33 percent reduction on homelessness among veterans following the federal government’s launch of Opening Doors, a strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. This reduction has been achieved through a partnership between the federal government, local governments, non-profit organizations and the private sector – making the elimination of veteran homelessness an achievable goal.

Anyone interested in donating to help end veteran homelessness through the Housing Mesa’s Heroes program should contact Lori Eastin at Community Bridges, Inc.at LEastin@cbridges.com or (480) 831-7566.