Child Crisis Arizona project/ P. 3
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
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COMMUNITY...... 14 Mesa teacher-guitarist explores the universe of music.
BUSINESS............ 16 Cigar aficionado's Mesa store appeals to like-minded smokers.
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Sunday, January 22, 2023
Costco warehouse gets Mesa board’s ‘grumbling approval’ BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
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etail giant Costco is planning a 75,000-square-foot warehouse with 25 loading docks on vacant land on the northeast corner of Elliot and Ellsworth roads. It’s not a retail Costco store but a “merchandise delivery operation,” or MDO, where big and bulky products are staged before delivery to customers’ homes. When customers purchase Items like re-
frigerators or furniture in a store or online, the company ships the product from a distribution center to a local MDO, where it is unboxed and inspected for final delivery. An attorney for the project told the Mesa Planning and Zoning Board that the Mesa facility will serve about half of the Phoenix metro area. It would be the first building that Costco has designed and built in Arizona to serve specifically as an MDO, she said. P&Z Chair Jeffrey Crockett and board
member Jeff Pitcher praised the retailer’s business, but they said they had issues with the warehouse’s proposed location in the heart of the Elliot Road Tech Corridor. The city has invested millions in infrastructure to lure high-tech and manufacturing companies to the area north and south of Elliot Road between roughly Sossaman and Signal Butte roads. North of the corridor, fiber optic cables see
COSTCO page 10
Lehi, city at war over Shuffleboard star apartment project BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
SPORTS................ 22 Mesa High's Kota Benson makes basketball look easy. COMMUNITY .............................. 14 BUSINESS ................................... 16 OPINION ..................................... 18 SPORTS ...................................... 22 GET OUT ...................................... 23 CLASSIFIED ............................... 27 ZONE 1
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any residents of the Lehi community in northwest Mesa cherish an agriculture-based lifestyle within an easy drive from more urban areas. “It’s a place where you can still work in the city, but you can come back and then you can enjoy a country lifestyle,” Lehi Community Improvement Association President Marilyn Crosby said. “In Lehi, we actually embrace not having sidewalks and not having more streetlights. We like beautiful night skies,” she continued. “Kids have chores, and they’re out feeding the animals first thing in the morning before they have breakfast. “It’s a beautiful, wonderful community.” see
LEHI page 6
Thanks to Robert “Shuffleboard Bob” Zaletel, residents of the Citadel Senior Living Community in Mesa have a new way to stay active. But Zaletel is far more than a good neighbor: he’s a national shuffleboard star. Read his story on page 12. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)