Let's uncover some of the newly-minted urban myths making the news created once again by none other than Jim Walsh, Staff Writer for the East Valley Tribune 'Staff Writers' Jim Walsh who writes what he's told. Atthis point-in-time it's hard-to-believe anything city officials say now about the two projects, stigmatized for years by under-handed undisclosed deals and behind-the-scenes scenarios on both properties - until that all became public. Two buzzwords were Bailey's Brake Service and Mesa Royale.
It's even more un-believable that one of the largest Hispanic Non-Profits in the nation is "emerging as an important player in the redevelopment of downtown Mesa. . . joining ASU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Chicanos Por La Causa [CPLC]
ASU
LDS Church
Who could possibly imagine a more perfect Tri-Fecta combination than that! What could possibly explain that unlikely combination is an announcement from the Treasury Department on October 19, 2018 about new guidelines and proposed regulations for Opportunity Zones. Walsh's writing is dated October 28th, with plenty of time after the sale of the 4.22-acre Mesa Royale site on January 29th for $2.39 million dollars to apply for new zoning.
At the same time - to his credit - EVT staff writer Jim Walsh uses a phrase that qualifies contiguous low-income census as Opportunity Zones:neglected NOW THIS IS A MAJOR MILESTONE FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH:An admission in public about what the "Vibrant & Exciting Downtown Mesa" really is and what city officials and major mainstream corporate media are coming to grips with;
EVT staff writerJim Walsh tries really hard to give some semblance of credibility to correct the public record of these two properties that were stigmatized by scandals - one even caught the attention of CBS News in a 60-Minutes expose by Mike Wallace 10 years ago about abuse by the City of Mesa using eminent domain. The Mesa Royale Mobile Home Park scandal uncovered some very unsavory details using zoning compliance as an excuse to kick out tenants for a millionaire's plans,
The Mesa Royale property scandal has now been re-invented in very tentative sketchy plans that the developer and the city's director of downtown transformation can't even agree what to call it: the developer calls it "Nuevos Vistas" a real incorrect mish-mash of Spanish while Jeff McVay wants to call it "Residences on Main". The most recent sale - after the property offered on the market with an asking price of $4M was withdrawn in 2017 - was recorded on January 29, 2018 with a selling price of $2.39M. You can watch the study session on October 11, 2018 in front of the Mesa City Council - the plans shown are not even what might get built there in three different phrases. Try as he might, the city's Planning & Zoning Director John Wesley can't seem to pull off the presentation to make the plans either convincing or credible at all.
_______________________________________________________________________________ TOP STORY 2 more big projects aimed at downtown Mesa's overhaul
" . . . City zoning documents show the 3.5-acre property, west of downtown, was annexed into Mesa in 1949 and that there was no record of any zoning procedures being followed. The park gradually fell into decay under its previous owners. . . " Blogger Note: There's more to the story than that ....use the searchbox on this blogsite and type in two words: Mesa Royale
“They were one of the few organizations that could have come into this situation and have credibility with the folks who live in that community,” Giles said. “This in my mind is a story that is ending much better than I thought it would. I think it’s a real success story.’’
Oct.31 -- Ben & Jerry's has a new political flavor: "Pecan Resist." The Vermont-based ice cream maker is hoping customers pronounce it "PEE-can," a likely nod to a recent Trump headline. This stunt is nothing new for the company founders, who have openly supported political causes before. In 2009, they changed the name of "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby Hubby" in support of same-sex marriage. In 2016, they created "Empower Mint" which was made by a bakery with a job-training program. The company says it stands with those who peacefully resist Trump administration policies
Oct.31 -- Seema Shah, global investment strategist at Principal Global Advisors, discusses her market concerns for 2019 in the wake of the global market selloff. She speaks on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas."
Oct.30 -- Debra Aho Williamson, EMarketer principal analyst, and David Kirkpatrick, Techonomy founder, discuss Facebook Inc.'s third-quarter earnings with Bloomberg's Selina Wang on "Bloomberg Technology
That's right - the CBRE sign on the doors of 137 W Main Street and 155 W Main Street says AVAILABLE RETAIL. Both properties changed hands last year when a group of investors with an eye for future wealth-creation in a downtown Opportunity Zone bought up eight commercial properties directly on Main Street along the line of the Valley Metro Light Rail Extension into the Central Business District that opened on August 14, 2015. While downtown Mesa has always been promoted by city officials and mainstream media as "vibrant and exciting", and a great place to live, work and play, "The Old Donut-Hole" has been neglected for 40 years - it now qualifies as an Ozone to attract investor-million$ pouring money into Qualified Investment Funds - one is The Caliber Wealth Creation Fund.
Here to the left is Mesa Mayor John Giles and AZ State Senator Bob Worsley (far right) shown in an image with some of the principals who started that wealth-creation fund. At the same time he's holding public office, last year conservative Mesa Mormon Republican Mega-Millionaire gambled what he said was $20M in private investments to form a number of holding companies hoping to profit off property value-increases usually associated with transit-oriented development.
The two properties advertised as available for retail now- 137 W Main Street and 155 W Main Street - are shown at bottom left. Behind their facades that you can see in the images below, there's a lot of history to be told about how just two of Mesa's early 20th-Century downtown business owners created their own wealth generations ago by mixing up politics and real estate investments. 155 W Main Street provides some details sketched out here.
Flash-forward 100 years to 2018 what you see-is-what-you get offered on the market now in the 21st Century in the Zombie-Retail area on Main Street. The QIFs are still waiting for guidance and all the rules/regulations from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service that could (or might) transform or restore or re-vitalize Downtown Mesa along the line of light rail. Nearly everyone - city officials and millionaires - are still waiting for that 'Salvation Train' to deliver on its promises - from Buy-and-Hold to Wait-and-See.
As you can see, the two available sites advertised for retail" need some work" . . .a lot.
The Zeb Pearce Building 155 W Main Street < Take a look at this image captured a few days ago from the north side of Main Street. The building has been vacant for years. What's hard to see in the perspective is a 6-ft tall 600-pound bronze statue of the founder Zebulon Pearce that was installed on the sidewalk in 2014 during construction of the Valley Metro Light Rail extension into the Central Business District. Some people might consider the statue 'bad public art. (Some details farther down). Here's the other available-for-retail property:
The O.S. Stapley Building 137 W Main Street Hard-to-believe it now, but this one-story supply store made fortunes for the original founder supplying equipment for the federally-financed construction of The Roosevelt Dam in the early 1900's. There were traffic jams on Main Street. In the 1930's another federally-financed WPA Project for water lines on First Avenue added to the revenues that created a hardware empire of 9 stores throughout the Valley as well as real estate development in the LDS Temple Area.
_________________________________________________________________________________ Let's, however, not get ahead of ourselves here in this brief snippet post today:
Cheers to the man who brought beer to Mesa!
John D’Anna, The Republic | azcentral.com Sept. 12, 2014
"You might not have noticed with all the light-rail construction on Main Street, but the city has a new monument to one of its giants.
Unveiled last Saturday, the 6-foot, 600-pound bronze statue is a tribute to a man who did one of the greatest things a man can do for his city:
He brought us beer.
Zebulon "Zeb" Pearce was many things. A mayor. A council member. A produce and feed store owner. An entrepreneur. And a Mormon. . . Even though his father was a Mormon and raised him in the church, Zeb married a Methodist. . ".
< This is the 6-foot 600-pound bronze statue where it stands today.[ image is from August 2017]
It still stands there today, along with an information plaque on the base. The company distributed Coors Beer brewed in Colorado.
(There are now two local hand-crafted breweries here in downtown Mesa: Desert Eagle and Oro Micro-Brewery.)
". . . Which makes his additional vocation as Mesa's first beer distributor after Prohibition a little ironic, according to his great-granddaughter, Meghan Pearce, who runs the Pearce Family Foundation.
Pearce ran a produce company and had one of first large refrigerated coolers, which made him a prime candidate for a Coors distributorship. The building that housed his original produce and feed and grain business still stands at 155 W. Main St., though the business has long-since moved. [2003]
"Zeb Pearce, who died in 1969, was a true pioneer. His family came to Arizona in a covered wagon from Mississippi in 1877 and settled in Mesa in 1882. His family owned 120 acres at Country Club and Main Street.
Young Zeb attended the Territorial Normal School, which eventually became Arizona State University. He taught school for 11 years before opening his produce business in 1911.
In addition to serving on the council and his two years as mayor, he served on the Mesa School Board and was a founding member of ASU's Sun Angel Foundation."
Here's a Press Release just now from the City of Mesa Newsroom Mon 20 Oct 2018 Community workshops for southwest corner of University Drive and Mesa Drive
October 29, 2018 at 12:45 pm
The City of Mesa wants to hear your ideas about the southwest corner of University Drive and Mesa Drive. The community is invited to participate in two hands-on workshops to establish project goals and provide input in the creation of master plan concepts for the 27 acres of undeveloped land in Downtown Mesa. . . Public Information and Communications Contact: Kevin Christopher Tel. 480-644-4699 kevin.christopher@mesaaz.gov
Scroll down this post to read the presser in its entirety ________________________________________________________________________ Hold on just a minute! Didn't Jeff McVay, the Director of Downtown Transformation do this two years ago? Link > https://mesazona.blogspot.com/2016/11/mesa-city-council-study-session-for.html#more Known to the City as “Redevelopment Site 17,” the tract once contained 63 homes that the City condemned and purchased at a cost of $6 million. A group of Canadian developers planned to build Mesa Verde, an entertainment village featuring a time-share resort, water park and ice-skating rink. After the City had already seized the homes, financing for the project fell through.[2] Now, 16 years later, the City is still considering possible redevelopment plans for the area.[3] . . . what's the current thinking and planning that's been put into an attempt to gather data from online surveys and two community meetings involving 1,873 people? 16-1223 Hear a presentation on the community and developer outreach efforts and provide direction on the future development of the approximately 25 acres of City-owned land located at the southwest corner of University and Mesa Drives. Here's a link to the Presentation - it's 29 pages : http://mesa.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2884066&GUID=43ABE4CD-209F-444D-A994-DEEBB3FFA60C
Jeffrey McVay, AICP Manager of Downtown Transformation Jeffrey Robbins, CPM Management Asst. II Lucia Lopez Marketing and Comm. Specialist II
Who wants to go here to take Mesa to the next level? Is this what works for Mayor John Giles or is there another direction? At tonight's Mesa City Council Study Session for Monday, Nov 21, 2016,one item stands out on the Final Agenda, but first some background to put things into perspective . . . 16 years later fast-forward to this Monday, November 21, 2016 where Director of Downtown Transformation, Jeff McVay, will be making a presentation of the results of months of online surveys and community meetings to a study session of the Mesa City Council. Real estate developers' perspectives are included also.
16 years ago demolition bulldozed the site, with reporter GaryNelson calling the 30 acres " a vastscar of empty real estate" in an article from 3 years ago. With the recent rejection by voters saying NO to a sales tax hike for another bogus downtown redevelopment plan, who knows if and when another Pie-In-The-Sky plan will fly?
________________________________________________________________________ What is Crandall Arambula that's been hired by the city as the urban planning consultant? The firm announced it on Twitter yesterday: Crandall Arambula@CA_PortlandSep 28
The team is honored to be selected for the University & Mesa Drives Conceptual Master Planning project with the City of Mesa, AZ. We are looking forward to assisting the community in creating a practical and innovative development strategy for this downtown site.
#urbanarchitectpic.twitter.com/e7tfiPLrvG
The team is honored to be selected for the University & Mesa Drives Conceptual Master Planning project with the City of Mesa, AZ. We are looking forward to assisting the community in creating a practical and innovative development strategy for this downtown site.
#urbanarchitect
In August 2018 they celebrated success with their new Redevelopment Plan + Master Plan
Today we're celebrating success with Gilbert, Arizona! Last night Council approved the new Redevelopment Plan + Master Plan by Crandall Arambula. Here's to the next 10 years of pedestrian-oriented growth and activity in the Gilbert downtown.https://twitter.com/GilbertAZEcoDev/status/1030469460392665088…
Crandall Arambula added,
0:44
Gilbert Economic Dev@GilbertAZEcoDev
#GilbertAZ's Heritage District is about to get even better!
Last night, the Gilbert Town Council approved the 2018 update to the Heritage District Redevelopment Plan, outlining concepts…
The City of Mesa wants to hear your ideas about the southwest corner of University Drive and Mesa Drive. The community is invited to participate in two hands-on workshops to establish project goals and provide input in the creation of master plan concepts for the 27 acres of undeveloped land in Downtown Mesa. The community workshops will be held > Tuesday, Nov. 13
> Tuesday, Jan. 29 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
> Eisenhower Center for Innovation
> 848 N. Mesa Drive.
Community workshops are open to the public, and all are encouraged to attend. The City has hired Crandall Arambula, an urban planning consultant, to manage a six-month master planning and community engagement process that will produce three conceptual master plans for the property.
The three conceptual master plans will: 1 Explore development alternatives at a range of intensities 2 Provide strategies for cultivating character through land use, circulation, and public space 3 Respond to market demand and the needs of the community 4 Provide City Council with viable options and measurable data to make an informed selection of the final concept At the end of the six-month process, City Council will select one master plan concept and use it to guide transformation of the property by a private developer or developers. The property sits between residential neighborhoods and the historic downtown core at the southwest corner of University Drive and Mesa Drive. As Downtown's future cornerstone, the transformation of this property will play a key role in achieving Mesa's vision for a vibrant new urban neighborhood a short walk from the heart of Mesa. Project details and meeting updates are available at www.mesaaz.gov/about-us/city-projects/downtown-transformation/university-mesa.
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Last night, the Gilbert Town Council approved the 2018 update to the Heritage District Redevelopment Plan, outlining concepts…
