If ASU's Polytechnic Closes, What Happens to Mesa's Dream Development?

With budget cuts of biblical proportions being proposed to deal with a multi-billion-dollar state revenue shortfall, Arizona State University is contemplating the end of its East Valley Polytechnic campus.But hold on -- Mesa was banking on the vitality of the satellite campus to help prop up progressive development dreams that no...

By Ray Stern

January 21, 2009

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With budget cuts of biblical proportions being proposed to deal with a multi-billion-dollar state revenue shortfall, Arizona State University is contemplating the end of its East Valley Polytechnic campus.

But hold on -- Mesa was banking on the vitality of the satellite campus to help prop up progressive development dreams that no less an editorial authority than the Economist theorized could bring about the "City of the Future." Optimists hope a planned resort complex by developer DMB will revitalize the area near Elliot and Ellsworth roads, the site of the old General Motors Proving Grounds.

From the 2006 DMB news released linked above:

According to Roc Arnett, president of the East Valley Partnership, "The property is a vital asset for Mesa due to its proximity to higher education, major infrastructure such as the Williams Gateway Airport and the ASU Polytechnic campus, and important transportation corridors including the Loop 202, US 60 and the planned Williams Gateway Freeway."

The Economist article also mentions the campus as being key to Mesa's grand plan for what Mesa Mayor Scott Smith called a "do-over" for the city, as is the nearby Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

The project already lies beneath an ominous black cloud: The ruling against Phoenix's CityNorth tax deal, which is causing lawmakers to scrutinize the $85 million in tax break's Mesa wants to give DMB to help with the do-over.

But the possibility that ASU Polytechnic might close must give city boosters the willies.

Oh yeah, and there are all those students, teachers and other employees who will be S.O.L.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.