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Heartbroken Chandler family asks for help PAGE 8 Northeast Mesa Edition
THE SUNDAY
Tribune EAST VALLEY
Coyotes look to new East Valley home, face some hurdles
This Week
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
NEWS.......................... 10
T
Cost of Thanksgiving dinner takes a dip this year
BUSINESS ................. 25 Oro Brewing adds to downtown Mesa’s mix
(Tribune file photo)
Fiesta Mall opened in 1979 with four anchor department stores: Sears, Goldwaters, Diamond's and The Broadway. Sears remains, and Diamond's has become a Dillard's clearance center. The other spots are vacant.
Winter season begins with hope, new faces and places
Party time for Fiesta again? Mesa exploring ways to turn area from blight to success COVER STORY BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributing Writer
DINING ....................... 31 Eating out is a new Thanksgiving tradition for some
COMMUNITY ................14 OPINION........................ 22 BUSINESS ....................... 25 SPORTS........................... 27 FAITH ..............................29 CLASSIFIED .................... 35
PAGE 3 Sunday, November 20, 2016
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INSIDE
SPORTS.......................27
Reptile lovers show ‘unusual’ families
I
t’s almost a ghost mall now. Once a powerful draw for shoppers and diners from the entire East Valley, Fiesta Mall now features empty storefront after empty storefront, with a handful of remaining businesses desperately hanging on. The Dillard’s store is now just a last-stop merchandise clearance shop. Macy’s is dark, as is Dick’s Sporting Goods. Best Buy closed in October. Parking lots are vast, empty fields of pavement.
The shopping center at Alma School Road and U.S. 60 in Mesa—not yet 40 years old—is an example of what happens when yesterday’s hot spot is overtaken by today’s hot spot. Larger, fancier malls in the region such as Arizona Mills in Tempe and Chandler Fashion Center sucked away customers, and changing demographics eroded some of the neighborhood’s financial bedrock. The mall’s fate has been shared by other retail centers in the immediate vicinity— most notoriously, Fiesta Village just north of the mall on Southern Avenue. That strip center, which until two decades ago also was a shopping and entertainment magnet, has been rotting behind a chain-link fence for See
BLIGHT on page 4
he Arizona Coyotes hope to become the next professional sports team to make the East Valley their full-time home after announcing ambitious plans to build a $400 million arena and a separate practice facility in Tempe. The new arena would serve as the centerpiece of the new Arizona State University Athletic Facilities District. It would be on the northwest corner of East Rio Salado Parkway and McClintock Drive, the present location of the back nine holes of ASU’s Karsten Golf Course and across from Tempe Marketplace. But a number of obstacles must be removed before construction can begin as early as late next summer, not the least of which is paying for a glittering new facility billed as a major destination. The Coyotes are pledging to pay close to half the cost. They will be seeking approval from the Arizona Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey for a package of tax rebates to finance the remaining $200 million. Although details of such a plan are a bit hazy, the rebates would amount to a percentage of new tax revenues generated by the arena, a proposed hotel where visiting teams would stay, and a mixed-use development. “There’s always some form of public involvement” required to build professional sports facilities, said Anthony LeBlanc, the Coyotes president and CEO. “This is a project that pays for itself.” LeBlanc and Coyotes owner Andrew Barroway said at a press conference that they are not expecting a free arena from taxpayers and that they are taking a substantial risk by putting up about half the money to build the new facility. “We are going to build it so it is a See
NEW ARENA on page 8