|
Source
Long-vacant Fiesta Village again violating Mesa city codes Posted: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 1:27 pm By Garin Groff, Tribune | 3 comments The prominent but long-vacant Fiesta Village shopping center has continued to deteriorate and is again violating Mesa's codes. The city is asking the center's owner to repair the former Bobby McGee's nightclub building, which has been vacant roughly 15 years. A citizen filed a complaint last week, said Mike Comstock, a code enforcement official with Mesa. Inspectors found missing roof tiles, peeling paint and damaged siding. [Damn! Missing roof tiles! I bet that will cause the down fall of Western civilization as we know it if it isn't fixed quickly] Phoenix-based W.M. Grace Development Co. has about two weeks to respond, Comstock said. The latest violation follows several years of feuding between Grace and Mesa over the 17-acre site at the northwest corner of Alma School Road and Southern Avenue. Mesa ordered Grace to demolish the crumbling, highly visible monument signs in 2010, which Grace appealed in court. Grace removed the signs last year while addressing other concerns about the property's maintenance. Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, who represents the area, said that he's noticed the most visible buildings along Southern have continued to decline in recent months. Transients started a fire in the Bobby McGee's building years ago, and the nearby former Bennigan's is also aging quickly, he said. Kavanaugh said he wonders if the buildings are worth keeping, since the cost to refurbish them and bring them up to modern codes could be exceed new construction prices. [Perhaps Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh would be willing to pay for the repairs, since he is the one demanding them] A Grace representative didn't return a call for comment. Kavanaugh has been critical of Grace but said the company has done a better job maintaining the rest of the center since last year. Yet the improvements only go so far because the center is at such a visible corner, he said. Kavanaugh said at a meeting with constituents last week, residents kept asking him about Fiesta Village. "It never goes away," he said. "That that was front and center as of last Friday morning." Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com |
||