Looking back in hindsight - and what we know now through the rear-view mirror - the Massive Mesa Mormon Temple Downtown Make Over Plans were in the planning stages for more than two years of consultation and coordination with city officials and developers before we got the bogus news in Deseret News from Salt Lake City that the future plans were uncertain and undetermined with no further details to reveal. Residents of downtown Mesa were played as fools while private real estate speculators made their moves.
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| The plans 'revealed' in June 2018 |
Undetermined future for LDS Church's Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors' Center
SALT LAKE CITY — On the heels of last week’s announced closing of two LDS Church temple visitors centers, the long-term future of a third — the Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors’ Center — is now uncertain. . . .
Apparently not in this rendering where the new visitors center is the keystone on the corner for Residences on Main & Mesa
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| Same area before @ SEC Main/Mesa Drive |
The visitors' center will close on May 19, the same day the Mesa Arizona Temple closes for extensive renovations, said Daniel Woodruff, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a statement released Tuesday morning.
“At this point, the future use of that building is undetermined,” he added. “Church leaders will make a decision based on the needs and demands of the area.”
This is how the Mesa Temple Area has looked for years >
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What we found out later: The LDS Church has for-profit "investment affiliates", Property Reserve Inc and City Creek Reserve to name only two, with connected interests in politics, government, finance, insurance and real estate.
Other individuals or family interests bought up 71 other residential properties over the years in the Temple Historic District that were 'donated' to the Church by among others Roc Arnett, the retired President and CEO of The East Valley Partnership for 35 years, and Denny Barney, named to succeed him while serving on the Maricopa Board of Supervisors.There are numerous posts on this blog - use the SEARCHBOX for more details and information.
Here's the former Mesa City Manager Mike Hutchinson, who now has a full-time job as Vice-President of EVP, with Denny Barney - all smiles. Both have been featured in articles in mainstream media highly praising the long-unknown plans to plop down a scaled-down 4.6-acre version of the 23-acre mixed-use 'City Creek' from Salt Lake City, Utah with what they say is Mesa-authentic architecture.
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Just coincidentally - and probably not - in the same month and just weeks after facing public anger, conservative Mesa Mormon Millionaire Republican AZ State Senator Bob Worsley was forced to reveal himself as the grand wizard of a rampant real estate speculation scheme who just managed somehow to snap up ten commercial properties on Main Street in a package-deal with a Caliber Private Wealth Fund LLP II.
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To the right is a map of the original 8 properties (now10) of the commercial properties built from 1910-1954 that were purchased by a syndicate of holding companies formed by private investors on the stretch of both sides of Main Street from Country Club to Center Street.
The City of Mesa also made lease agreements for proposals on some of the adjoining parking lots shown on the map, as well as the Drew Street Parking Lot, the parking lot at the NWC of Pepper Place/Centennial Drive for a $75M new construction for ASU, and the parking lot at 300 E Pomeroy including plans for The GRID built on top of the 3-story Municipal Court parking garage.
Of all these plans and proposals only the Mesa Mormon Temple Massive Downtown Make-Over has broken ground, without any fanfare at the SEC of Main Street/Mesa Drive.
Sometimes a well-placed secret - and friends-in-high-places - can do the trick
