The prominent but long-vacant Fiesta Village shopping center has continued to deteriorate and is again violating Mesa's codes.
The city is asking the center's owner to repair the former Bobby McGee's nightclub building, which has been vacant roughly 15 years. A citizen filed a complaint last week, said Mike Comstock, a code enforcement official with Mesa. Inspectors found missing roof tiles, peeling paint and damaged siding.
Phoenix-based W.M. Grace Development Co. has about two weeks to respond, Comstock said.
The latest violation follows several years of feuding between Grace and Mesa over the 17-acre site at the northwest corner of Alma School Road and Southern Avenue.
Mesa ordered Grace to demolish the crumbling, highly visible monument signs in 2010, which Grace appealed in court. Grace removed the signs last year while addressing other concerns about the property's maintenance.
Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, who represents the area, said that he's noticed the most visible buildings along Southern have continued to decline in recent months. Transients started a fire in the Bobby McGee's building years ago, and the nearby former Bennigan's is also aging quickly, he said.
Kavanaugh said he wonders if the buildings are worth keeping, since the cost to refurbish them and bring them up to modern codes could be exceed new construction prices. A Grace representative didn't return a call for comment.
Kavanaugh has been critical of Grace but said the company has done a better job maintaining the rest of the center since last year.
Yet the improvements only go so far because the center is at such a visible corner, he said. Kavanaugh said at a meeting with constituents last week, residents kept asking him about Fiesta Village.
"It never goes away," he said. "That that was front and center as of last Friday morning."
Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com
Rich posted at 6:46 pm on Wed, Jan 25, 2012.
"Entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit."
Such as giving another developer tax rebates to build a competing shopping center. But take heart Mesa, Wrigleyville will save you (or was that Waveyard?)
Dennis posted at 3:59 pm on Wed, Jan 25, 2012.
Well Leon, since Fiesta Village is in my council district I will keep on pressing Grace to do something with this property regardless of your opinion. That does not mean that I am not concerned with the crime of prostitution on our city. I do work closely with Mesa PD on their enforcement priorities and addressing prostitution on Main Street and elsewhere is part of those priorities.
And, if you see a motel that looks bad, you should be getting on the phone to Code Compliance and file a complaint.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 2:11 pm on Wed, Jan 25, 2012.
Councilman Kavanaugh should be more concerned about the "prostitution on Main Street between the Mormon Temple grounds and Gilbert. How about those "hourly Motels" on Main Street that have peeling paint, missing roof shingles and damaged sidings.
Councilman Kavanaugh....instead of writing letters to W.M. Grace Development Company..............YOU SHOULD BE GETTING ON THE PHONE TO THE MESA POLICE CHIEF AND TELLING HIM TO ......"GET SOME BLACK & WHITES TO RUN THE "JOHNS" OFF AND ARREST THE PROSTITUTES".