Split Mesa council approves $7.4M for hotel to shelter individuals

By Richard Dyer
Mail | Twitter: @RHDyer

Mesa in a split 4-3 vote of the city council is purchasing a 70-room hotel for $7.44 million to house unsheltered individuals.

City officials expect the sale to close in October. Before a council use permit is approved, property owners within 1,000 feet will be notified of the planned use of the hotel as part of the city’s Off the Streets program, Deputy City Manager Natalie Lewis said at a recent council work session.

Much of the property adjacent to the Grand Hotel, 6733 E. Main St., is zoned limited commercial, with a single-family homes neighborhood to the south, she said.

“Staff has actually already been out in this neighborhood. They have some challenges but we are trying to find ways to strengthen that neighborhood while we’re here. We want to be a good neighbor,” she said.

There will be a Mesa police presence day and night at the hotel, according to a proposed good-neighbor policy.

“(I)t’s referral-based — we don’t allow people to walk up or just drop-in; we enforce a curfew, which is 10 p.m. each night; there (are) limited designated areas for outside use — we don’t want there to be an appearance of people just hanging out in the space,” she said at a May 11 city council work session.

The city council on May 15 approved using Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Act funding from the American Rescue Plan Act allocated to the city to purchase the Grand Hotel. Voting no were council members Alicia Goforth, representing District 5; Mark Freeman, representing District 1; and Scott Somers, representing District 6.

“While I’m empathetic to the use of this property, the issue for me here on this vote is with the cost. We’ll be coming back later to discuss (the) council use permit and its operation, but the purchase price of this property of $7.44 million exceeds all appraisals and this property sold on the market just two years ago for $3.75 million,” Somers said prior to the vote.

The city’s appraisal valued the property at $6.48 million. A separate appraisal by someone who does commercial real estate came to $5.2 million, he said.

Purchasing the hotel also means that the city brings on new ongoing general-fund expenditures — something the city has not done for this purpose, Somers said.

“So, from a fiscally conservative perspective, I won’t support moving forward,” he said later.

Mesa Mayor John Giles, who is in favor of the hotel purchase, told of traveling to the east and west coasts and seeing tent encampments used by unsheltered individuals.

“I think it’s fortuitous that we have these ARPA funds — kind of a onetime federal endowment of money that can be used in this way,” he said.

“Homelessness is continuing to grow in our community and across our country,” Giles said. “We are — in Arizona — subject to a Ninth Circuit Court case that says that in order for us to enforce urban camping laws we have to offer people alternatives. We have to have shelter beds, emergency housing and thus far we’ve been able to stay ahead of the curve on that and that’s why Mesa stands out as looking different than a lot of other cities you see in the U.S.”

Maricopa County is to contribute $4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the hotel project through an intergovernmental agreement.

“(T)here’s an IGA for (American Rescue Plan Act) funds that will flow through the county. The county’s IGA will come to council probably in about a month,” City Attorney Jim Smith said at the Mesa City Council’s May 15 meeting.

Councilmember Julie Spilsbury, representing District 2, said she supports the purchase of the hotel.

“I love that our city has this program that we treat each of these individuals as an individual — we don’t lump them all into a category of ‘the homeless,’” she said. “I am in support of this and I appreciate the work that we’re doing to move forward on this process to keep this program going for the people who need it.”

The city’s Off the Streets program is a temporary-housing program with support services offered by the city and Community Bridges Inc. The city leases rooms at the Windemere Hotel, 5750 E. Main St., and has helped 1,500 individuals and families since the program started in May 2020.

Homelessness is a growing problem and it is urgent that the city of Mesa do something, Councilmember Jenn Duff, representing District 4, said.

“We’ve been searching for quite awhile for a hotel to do this program,” she said. “(T)he lease rates at the existing hotel are escalating as the economy is turning back and so it makes sense to get into a property that we can own and control those baseline costs and provide the service that has a very high success rate and provides solutions to homelessness.”

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.