By Alison Steinbach | Arizona Republic
Hundreds of apartment units are under construction or coming soon in downtown Mesa, which should bring what the city’s downtown development chief says is needed to help transform the area into the innovative and busy urban core city leaders have long envisioned.
The sprawling city of more than 500,000 people already has an arts center, light rail that connects to downtown Phoenix and unique small businesses along a quaint Main Street. But compared to downtowns in neighboring — and far smaller — Tempe and Gilbert, Mesa’s still is quieter.
The key is to bring in more people to live and visit downtown, and numerous diverse developments under construction now and in the coming years should do just that, said Jeff McVay, Mesa’s manager of downtown transformation.
