Mesa City Council votes to authorize downtown ASU campus

PHOENIX — The Mesa City Council voted Monday night to authorize a downtown campus for Arizona State University.

The council voted 5-2 in favor of the resolution. Council members Jeremy Whittaker and Kevin Thompson voted against the proposal.

“This is an opportunity that our city gets only rarely and it’s an opportunity to develop high-wage jobs and to give a shot in the arm to our economy,” Mesa Mayor John Giles said during the hearing.

“This is a good rate of return for the city of Mesa.”

Records showed the arrangement would “authorize the development and construction of a multi-story building and other improvements to be developed and constructed by the City as a part of certain educational facilities in downtown Mesa.”

The city manager will enter into a 99-year lease with the Arizona Board of Regents “for, and on behalf of, Arizona State University for the Phase One Building.”

The council had given City Manager Chris Brady the go-ahead to pursue an agreement for a second Mesa campus in February.

Those plans have upset some residents, who thought all the construction and maintenance of the 118,000-square-foot facility would negatively affect public safety funding.

According to public papers on the project, the city was going to be responsible for infrastructure improvements and a 2-3 acre public open space.

The academic building would be five stories and cost $63.5 million. About 750 students and 40 faculty and staff would be on campus within five years.

Arizona State Sen. Bob Worsley (R-Mesa) said investors were “excited” for the move after seeing how the university transformed nearby Phoenix and Tempe.

He also said that the proposal was going to “give downtown Mesa a face-lift.”

“Every 50 years or so, a city is ready for its transformative moment,” Worsley said.

“Mesa is ready for that moment.”

ASU opened its polytechnic campus in east Mesa in 1996.

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