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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Sunday, February 5, 2023
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VOTE NOW Bell Bank Park could see management shakeup BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
BESTOF
2023
A
year after Bell Bank Park opened to great expectations, the park has hosted hundreds of thousands visitors and reported 4.3 million individual visits in Mesa, but it remains under a dark financial cloud since defaulting on the terms of its loan in October. The profits the park was expected to
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generate never materialized, putting its owner’s ability to make loan payments on the $280 million in tax-free municipal bonds that financed it in jeopardy. Most recently, Legacy Cares missed a $10 million payment due Jan. 1, and it still owes contractors $30 million in back payments for the park’s construction. The project’s cash is down to $22 million left in a reserve fund for loan payments, leaving questions for some about
Builders super-size to fight drive-thru regs
COMMUNITY...... 18 Mesa author, 92, pens new thriller set in WW1.
how Legacy Cares has spent $260 million on its development. After Legacy Cares missed a January deadline to submit an audited financial report for fiscal year 2022, the public remains in the dark. What all this financial doom and gloom will ultimately mean for users at the 320acre park is unclear but a recent court filsee
BELL PARK page 6
David vs. Goliath
BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
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BUSINESS............ 24 Legendary Mesa taco restaurant marks 10 years. COMMUNITY .............................. 18 BUSINESS ................................... 24 OPINION ..................................... 29 SPORTS ...................................... 34 GET OUT ...................................... 37 CLASSIFIED ............................... 44 ZONE 1
he City of Mesa’s proposed rule changes on new drive-thru eateries have not changed since November, but industry opposition has evolved and has been gaining steam since then. At the latest public meeting last week, speakers opposing the new drive-thru rules included a representative for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a global shopping center trade group, and a lobbyist for the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. There were also a half-dozen land use attorneys speaking on behalf of a dozen or more clients who own commercial properties in Mesa or develop quick-serve restaurants, an see
DRIVE-THRU page 16
John Conover, who owns the house in the background at S. Morris Street and W. Broadway Road, Mesa, has been fighting a private equity firm's effort to build a three-story storage facility that would loom over what was once part of his grandfather’s farm. He's fighting the city, too, as you'll read on page 8. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)
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