Mesa council, nonprofit break ground on Main Street apartment complex

The Mesa City Council and leadership representing Chicanos Por La Causa gathered on West Main Street Thursday afternoon to break ground on an apartment complex that will provide more than 200 units and 19,000 square feet of retail space.

CPLC, a nonprofit that provides resources for housing, health, education and economic development for communities in need in Arizona as well as California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, is bringing the mixed-use development to downtown Mesa.

The $80 million complex goes by the name of The Residences at Mesa and Main. The development site is between West Main Street and North Country Club Drive, next to the light rail stop on West Main Street.

Nic Smith, CPLC vice president of real estate development, said he hopes the complex will be completed in the next 15 months. The properties will be market-priced, although the group did not specify what that would entail.

Mesa Mayor John Giles said the complex is in a great spot for future residents.

“It’s very strategic. It’s right at the entrances of a lot of downtown businesses and amenities. It’s at a light rail station. So it’s in a very strategic place, and it’s very critical for the city of Mesa to have a development like this happen. It’s got residential, we’ve got small business on the ground floor ... it will play a very important role in additional development in this neighborhood,” Giles said.

The project has been in the works since before the pandemic, Smith said. CPLC submitted a request for proposal in 2017. Once approved, Smith and his team started to work on the complex’s design process, while also acquiring the property needed from owners in order for the site to be cleared out.

Progress was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The pandemic temporarily halted work on the development. Even when work on the complex resumed, it took a while for the parties involved to get back into full gear.

“It’s a long process to get it started again once you put the brakes on it,” Smith said. “To be able to see that vision from 2017 be put into fruition all these years later is very exciting.”

The CPLC has been investing in the Mesa area for years along with other metropolitan areas in the Valley. It has provided mental health services, lending, housing and counseling services.

In addition to the upcoming development, CPLC has built properties in Mesa in the past and is continuing to do so in the future, including affordable single-family homes.

“We felt that all of this investment in all of the metropolitan areas, especially in Mesa, was important. Not only do we have staff out here, but we felt that there was the need for more housing,” CPLC interim President Alicia Nunez said. “So we started acquiring different land. We just built 10 townhomes about two blocks (from the development site)...we continue to build affordable housing.”

Nunez thanked city officials and community members for working together with CPLC to bring The Residences at Mesa and Main to life.

“A project like this is big, the size is definitely something that is a big undertaking. It took a few years for it to get off the ground. Working with local officials has really helped. Getting support from the community and from officials is something that is key. It’s something that we have worked really hard in building and managing throughout the years,” Nunez said.