Downtown Mesa could get grocery store

Jul. 23—Many multifamily residential projects are slated to open in downtown Mesa in the near future, but if ZenCity sticks to its estimated timeline, the six-story structure will have risen on a more compressed schedule than the other highly anticipated projects there.

And many who live near downtown may eye it for another reason: to see if a full-service grocery store materializes on the ground floor as teased at the ZenCity groundbreaking last week.

A spokesman for Caliber Development said the company has letters of intent for a grocery store and a milkshake shop to move into the space below the apartments.

"In general, the location of a grocery store in downtown has consistently been the most-received request from the public when discussing the future of downtown," Downtown Transformation Manager Jeff McVay said.

He noted that specialty grocers Inspire Farms and Main Street Harvest currently serve downtown, but "the addition of a full-service grocery, if that is what would be part of the ZenCity project, would be a significant addition to downtown."

One reason to temper expectations for a new grocery is ZenCity doesn't have a lot of space to work with.

The ground-level retail area will be about 7,000 square feet, and the average grocery store is about 40,000 square feet.

But the promoters of ZenCity have consistently touted the project's density and how much they will be able to pack into a small space.

The apartment units are relatively small at 320 square feet and 640 square feet, respectively, but include robotic furniture — like a bed that rises into the ceiling during the day.

Promoters say that helps to maximize the space.

Crews for Caliber, which owns 10 properties on Main Street, have finished demolishing a bank building at 29 Main St. and filled in its basement and former vault with "engineered" dirt fill.

Work will now begin on a ground-floor base, estimated to take four months, that will eventually serve as foundation for 90 factory-built studio and two-bedroom units locked together to form the midrise tower.

The ZenCity units are made by startup modular home maker ZenniHomes, founded by former Arizona Senator and Sky Mall founder Bob Worsley.

Project backers have great expectations for ZenCity, saying the development community will be watching Mesa's ZenniHome project to see if the stackable modular homes will be a viable way to address housing shortages — especially in an economy where construction labor is tight.

They say once the base of ZenCity is built, the stacking and looking together of the modular units will go relatively quickly, adding a new apartment building to downtown in a short time frame.

Worsley says he has 40,000 "soft orders" for his high-tech modular homes, and he is actively fundraising to scale up production of ZenniHomes' factory in Page, on the site of the demolished Navajo Generating Station, once the largest coal-fired power plant in the West.

At the groundbreaking event last week, Worsley said that with 90 units on just half an acre, ZenCity will have more density than any other building in Mesa.

The sales pitch for ZenCity is that it offers an urban lifestyle. A project narrative boasts that "the site is only 350 feet from a light-rail stop, City Hall and the Mesa Arts Center."

Caliber is betting that future tenants embrace the urban lifestyle and favor public transit, as ZenCity will only have 21 on-site parking spaces.

The company thinks one early group of residents could be students and faculty at the Arizona State University's newly constructed MIX Center, which houses part of the university's film school and boosts high-tech studio and film screening space.

The city is allowing construction crews to stage the prefabricated units on the empty Site 17 parcel at Mesa and University drives before they are hoisted into place and locked-in with neighboring units at the Main Street site.

Scottsdale-based Synergy Modular is constructing the ZenniHome tower.

Downtown Councilwoman Jenn Duff expressed enthusiasm for the project. In remarks before the groundbreaking, she said she appreciated that ZenCity's modern architecture would be steps away from historic buildings.

Mayor John Giles remarked that downtown Mesa has long needed more residents, "and that's exactly what this project brings."

In the past year, Caliber has made steady progress on opening its properties for business, with Level One Arcade Bar opening across the street from the ZenCity site last month.

A spokesman for Caliber said the firm has just two downtown properties left for redevelopment.