Drayage Brokersin Mesa, AZ

With its adrenaline-pumping outdoor adventures and treasure trove of local shops and festivities, Mesa has to rank as one of the best hidden gems in Arizona. After learning what it’s like to live in Mesa, It’s hard not to be captivated by the rich culture of this town and start to explore renting an apartment in Mesa or even buying a home in the city.

From taking a stroll through the expanded Downtown Mesa to visiting the Arizona Museum of Natural History, here’s Redfin’s ultimate Mesa bucket list for uncovering all that this city has to offer.

1. Take a walk through Downtown Mesa

The best start to any Mesa bucket list is a stroll through the new and expanded downtown area. “We love downtown Mesa. This past year, our city has worked hard to bring in unique eateries and several new hand-crafted breweries. Our Main Street is lined with specialty shops and every week we have pop-up outdoor markets featuring local vendors and producers,” says Tiffiny Lilley of Inspire Farms. At the weekly local pop-up outdoor markets, locals can purchase fresh produce, meats, bread, milk, and raw honey.

Downtown Mesa isn’t done with their expansion just yet, but the growth is definitely noticeable. “There are nationally recognized restaurants, local breweries and cider houses, and more on the horizon,” says Luke Irvin of A Taste of AZ, a blog focused on supporting local food in Arizona.

With all the growth and expansion, Mesa residents continue to come together to support local while also welcoming in familiar and beloved chain restaurants–just ask Marissa Selby and Josh Starnes, owners of gourmet cinnamon roll maker Cinnaholic Mesa. “One thing we’ve found to really love and appreciate about this town is the community’s efforts to support small, local, family-owned businesses. We appreciate the support of our community more than we can ever put into words, and we think our wonderful community’s ability to support each other is what makes Mesa super special.”

Other locals continue to tout Mesa’s strong culture and support of local businesses. Jarrod Martinez of Jarrod’s Coffee, Tea, & Gallery says, “I love that Mesa recognizes small businesses. The support we get from our amazing community and the surrounding beauty are a win-win.” James Lewis of JL Smokehouse sums it up by saying “Mesa allows you to be you. For this reason, I chose Mesa for my second restaurant.”

3. Enjoy a pint or a glass

As downtown Mesa continues to grow, plenty of unique local and national breweries and wineries continue to pop up. Local favorite breweries like 12 West Brewing, Oro Brewing Company, and Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. give a taste of the beers sourced in Mesa, while Mr. Brews Taphouse brings a national appeal. “Our delectable menu featuring delicious pub-style food complements the beer choices perfectly,” shares John Milleson of Mr. Brews Taphouse Mesa.

4. Visit Saguaro Lake Marina

Any Mesa bucket list needs to include a visit to the Saguaro Lake Marina for a day of kayaking, fishing, jet skiing, and of course, an unforgettable scenic drive. Henri Gurgenyan of Creative Color Art Studios says, “With a cozy family-run restaurant, the Desert Belle tour boat, pontoon boat rentals, the Saguaro Lake Marina has everything to guarantee an unforgettable day and a great time for you and your loved ones.”

5. Learn something new at the Arizona Museum of Natural History

A must on any Mesa bucket list is a stop at the Arizona Museum of Natural History. With extensive exhibits showcasing the state’s rich geological past, you can spend hours getting lost and learning about the world around you. Extensive hands-on activities and engaging programs make for a fun time regardless of age, inspiring in anyone wonder and appreciation for the marvels of the natural world.

6. Stroll around the gardens at Mesa Temple

The Mesa Temple has been a landmark in Mesa for nearly 100 years. Opened in 1927, the temple has quickly become a beloved centerpiece of the community and an outdoor gathering place for all residents. “The 20-acre lot is filled with beautiful gardens and reflecting pools, making it a perfect place to take photos, stroll with family and friends, or enjoy a moment of quiet reflection in a very peaceful setting,” shares Jill Adair of the Mesa Temple Events Committee.

The Mesa Temple also hosts many events throughout the year, including the annual Easter musical presentation on the North Lawn and breathtaking Christmas lights displayed during the holidays.

7. Get acquainted with the Mesa Art Scene

Not only rich in outdoor activities and cuisine, Mesa also boasts a flourishing arts community. From theatrical performances to concerts to museums, there’s plenty to explore in your new town.

“The city’s charming downtown area invites exploration with its historic architecture, eclectic shops, and a thriving arts scene. With a rich cultural heritage, Mesa also hosts festivals, museums, and events that celebrate the diversity and creativity that define this desert oasis!” says MacKenzie Pudenz of MacKenzie Pudenz Photography.

Mesa didn’t always have a strong art community–it was cultivated for years by the artists that call this city home. “As Arizona’s longest running nonprofit community theatre since 1937, we’ve both witnessed firsthand and had the honor of contributing to the vibrant arts community that now exists in Mesa,” shares Mesa Encore Theatre. “The wide range of exciting arts-driven initiatives in Downtown Mesa and at Mesa Arts Center brings this community to life through colorful collaborations, experiences, and show-stopping occasions. At their core, these beautiful and varied displays of art—from musicals to plays to concerts and exhibitions—are only possible because of the immense talent that lives in our growing city.”

8. Take a day trip to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum

As a new resident of the desert, you should get to know the flora that you’ll now find yourself surrounded by. “The best place to do that is the Boyce Thompson Arboretum,” says Zach Fowle of Arizona Wilderness Brewing. Just 45 minutes east of Mesa, this attraction will give you a better picture of life in the desert. “Duck inside historic buildings, stumble upon hidden gardens, check out spectacular views of Picketpost Mountain, and get up close and personal with cacti and other flora from the world’s deserts. The 4,000 plant varieties grown here have all learned to adapt, survive, and even flourish in a harsh environment. You can, too.”

9. Explore Mesa’s outdoor playground

Arizona’s natural beauty continues to captivate residents and visitors alike. Enveloped by the breathtaking landscapes of the Sonoran Desert, Mesa offers unparalleled hiking opportunities, with scenic trails winding through the rugged beauty of the Sonoran Desert, providing both novice and experienced hikers with captivating views of majestic landscapes.

“My personal favorite are the Arizona sunsets, when the horizon transforms into a breathtaking vibrant canvas of oranges, pinks, and purples, against the iconic silhouette of saguaro cacti,” says MacKenzie Pudenz.

“It’s truly a tranquil masterpiece,” continues MacKenzie. “I love the unique blend of outdoor and cultural experiences in Mesa. One of my favorite things is the beautiful rock formations and hiking trails at the Usery Mountain Regional Park, offering a perfect mix of desert beauty and outdoor adventure.”

10. Treasure hunt at the Mesa Market Place Swap Meet

This bustling marketplace brims with endless treasures waiting to be discovered. The Mesa Market Place Swap Meet features handcrafted items by artisans as well as vintage finds. Between hunts for the perfect gifts and treasures, indulge in delectable street food to fuel you through the rest of your hunt.

11. Savor the local delicacies

The best thing for any Mesa bucket list is to dive into the local food scene. With strong influences from the Mexican state of Sonora and the Native Americans that live on the land, the food in Mesa is an experience all on its own. With so much choice, it can be hard to decide where to go. Aside from visiting our friends at Cinnaholic Mesa, Jarrod’s Coffee, Tea & Gallery, and JL Smokehouse, locals came through with their strong recommendations when prompted. Luke Irvin says, “We recommend Cider Corps, BRI Arcade, Phantom Fox Beer Co., and Espiritu.”

If you want an experience to never forget, take the advice of the owners of Puzzling Escape, a local escape room, and visit Organ Stop Pizza. This eclectic pizza restaurant features the largest theater pipe organ ever created, serenading guests with tunes while you eat.

A stellar stop for Mediterranean food in Mesa is Princess Pita. Featuring an extensive list of Mediterranean dishes, Princess Pita also stocks a full line of Mediterranean groceries. “Our restaurant’s commitment to quality and genuine Mediterranean hospitality makes it a standout destination in Mesa, where visitors can savor the essence of this vibrant culinary tradition,” says Noor Alsadi of Princess Pita.

Still hungry? Check out our article on Must-Try Restaurants in Mesa, AZ for more.

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A good story never dies. Recently, social media has been alive with reported sightings of an alligator in one of Mesa’s most placid and inviting lakes — Riverview Park at Dobson and Rio Salado.

It’s where hundreds of kids, mostly oblivious to critters in the lake, go every day to partake in the park’s many amenities.

But social media outlets like Reddit have been posting pictures of what certainly seems to be an alligator lazily soaking up the sun near a pedestrian path.

Is it really an alligator?

Yes. It appears to be a gator — but just not a living one. Only a replica, possibly placed there by the parks department.

Anywhere else, it might just be an amusing novelty. But in Mesa there is great sensitivity to anything alligator related.

That’s because for over 60 years, alligators have been an important part of our urban lore — both fact and fiction.

The mythical part is the belief that for decades, alligators, like Big Foot, the Yeti or maybe the Loch Ness monster, have quietly inhabited our canals and lakes — sometimes, some say, even popping up out of toilets.

Ridiculous? In part. There is some truth to this enduring legend.

We have to go back to the mid-1950s when a young man from Christian Pass, Mississippi, brought a bunch of alligators and some other exotic animals to Mesa and opened Jack Adam’s Alligator Farm, a novel business just east of the Starlight Motel, where the Diving Lady demonstrates her aquatic prowess each night at Main Street and Lindsay Road.

To say that alligators in the desert was an oddity is an understatement.

It even earned Adam a 1955 appearance on the popular television show “What’s My Line?” His story was so unbelievable that it nearly stumped the celebrity panel, earning Adam the $50 prize (about $561 today).

For nearly a decade, the business was a popular attraction. In 1962 for its opening, Adam sold three 10-foot gators to the Maytag Zoo, now the Phoenix Zoo.

A year later, Adam was ready for a change. A big change.

He decided to give up his reptilian enterprise for something completely different: God.

In 1963, when Adam returned to a seminary that he briefly attended before coming to Arizona, he leased his enterprise to Dale Logiston, a reptile dealer from Fort Worth, Texas.

Without the charismatic, local celebrity Adam to keep the visitors coming, business rapidly waned.

Logiston transferred some of the most valuable specimens to Texas, locked the gate and walked away, abandoning more than 200 hibernating gators.

You might imagine what happened next.

Years later, one Mesa High School student recalled, “It didn’t take long for us to figure out that Jack was gone and we could take free tours of the alligator farm.”

Word quickly got around that gators “were free for the taking.” The reaction was what you might expect of fun-loving teenagers: “Wow! Free alligators! How cool is that?”

“One of our industrious friends concluded that the poor gators would soon starve without some attention,” one student remembered. “Since he was not experienced or prepared to care for the 2-dozen water-bound lizards, he concluded that these poor animals should be set free.”

Leading to the great “Alligator Farm Raid.”

“Over one weekend, a small group of teenagers quietly moved all of the gators from the zoo enclosure to the local lakes and canals.”

The daring escapade even led to the CBS Evening when Walter Cronkite closed out a broadcast by disclosing:

“And now this from Mesa, Arizona — a town being overrun by alligators. That’s right. Alligators in canals, irrigation ditches, swimming pools and even Mesa High School.

“It seems some students at Mesa High have liberated and relocated dozens of these reptiles from a closed-down alligator farm. And now these critters are showing up all over town. So be careful out there in Mesa.”

Well, now you know how this part myth and part fact took hold. And endures to this today. As for a real alligator in Riverview Park?

Well, that’s just a load of croc.

Plans have been filed for a six-building campus in Mesa, Arizona, likely by Novva Data Centers.

First reported by Azbex and the Mesa Tribune, an unnamed company has filed a pre-submittal application with the City of Mesa for a data center campus known as ‘Project Borealis.’

Project Borealis is a six-building campus that would include an office complex and warehouse on approximately 160.49 acres at the northwest corner Ellsworth and Warner roads.

The site would include six 257,000 sq ft (23,875 sqm) data centers and two on-site substations.

Azbex noted the site will use a closed-loop water system consisting of a mix of 60 percent water and 40 percent glycol. Each data center building will require 200,000 gallons to fill the systems in a one-time event. They would also use free-cooling when ambient temperatures are below 72°F (22°C).

Azbex notes the pre-submittal narrative from project representative Quarles & Brady LLP does not identify the owner, but the property was acquired in an Aug. 29 Arizona State Land Department auction.

US firm Novva acquired 160 acres of land in Mesa along Ellsworth and Warner roads in late August. Without providing details, at the time the company said it aimed to have plans before the city planning & zoning board by Q1 2024 and could break ground in 2025.

Novva declined to comment to DCD about the development.

Mesa Planning Department staffers are scheduled to meet with Project Borealis representatives on December 19 to discuss the plan ahead of a formal application.

Novva was launched in 2020 by former C7 CEO Wes Swenson with $95 million from CIM, initially with plans to develop a $1 billion hyperscale campus in West Jordan, Utah. The company opened the 300,000 square foot (28,000 sqm) first phase of that campus late last year, and targets growing the facility to 1.5 million sq ft (140,000 sq m) over four phases.

The company has since acquired a 6MW facility in Colorado Springs and announced plans to expand it to 30MW for $200 million. 2022 also saw Novva announce plans for a 275,000 square foot (25,550 sqm), 100MW data center in Las Vegas.

Earlier this year, the company announced plans for a 60MW data center in Reno, Nevada that is set to open in 2024. The company is also planning a facility in San Francisco, California.

Phoenix is a major data center hub, with the Mesa area home to Polish software firm Comarch as well as EdgeCore, Meta, Google, Novva, Apple, CyrusOne, and NTT. Amazon is planning two campuses in Mesa, while landowner Pacific Proving is also planning to develop a large campus in the area.

Across the rest of Phoenix, the likes of Stack, Stream, Prime, Aligned, Iron Mountain, Vantage, Compass, QTS, EdgeConneX, Expedient, and H5 are all present. Microsoft operates a cloud region out of the area.

MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — A burrito shop in business in the East Valley was forced to shut down and look for a new place to operate after Maricopa County said its building wasn’t safe.

For 17 years, the Burrito Shack off Power Road near the Phoenix Mesa-Gateway Airport has served up Mexican food. Co-owner John Grafing says the county went in about a week and a half ago to inspect. The next day, they were hit with a cease and desist order to shut down immediately. “It’s really unfortunate. We’ve gone through many struggles in the past like COVID and other scenarios,” Grafing said. “It’s unfortunate because we don’t have much of a choice. It’s out of our hands.”

The order was about the building not being up to safety codes, not about food or food prep. Grafing worked here for years under his grandfather. When he took over the business about a year and a half ago, he made his friend Zeppelin Lucero a co-owner. The two talked about as kids one day owning the shop. “Driving down this road and not seeing Burrito Shack being there is going to be weird,” Lucero said.

Many new builds are going up around this part of east Mesa and Gilbert. Lucero says they cannot wait a year or two for a brand-new spot. They have a commercial real estate agent now helping them find a new location. They plan to keep the Burrito Shack name at their new spot. “It was sad and a shock, Grafing said. “It was a lot to take in. It may take a few weeks, or months. We don’t know exactly, but as soon as possible, be up and running again.”

Grafing says they rent the building. They were told they would need to pay for any upgrades or repairs. Grafing said the cost would not make sense on a building decades old.

Six employees aren’t working right now as the owners look for a new location. They are asking for help while they are all out of work. You can donate to their cause by clicking here.

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AZ Athletic Associates LLC acquires former 'Legacy Park' in Mesa, AZ

Burke Operating Partners provides diligence and investment support

MESA, Ariz., Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AZ Athletic Associates LLC ("AZAA"), an affiliate of Rocky Mountain Resources ("RMR") and Burke Operating Partners, has acquired the sports and entertainment complex formerly known as Legacy Park in Mesa, AZ. The facility, now known as Arizona Athletic Grounds at Mesa Campus ("AAG"), opened in 2022. AAG is one of the largest youth-oriented sports facilities in North America.

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The Mesa facility serves over 4,000,000 visitors per year, providing youth and adult athletic programming as well as a variety of special events. The website (www.elitesportsaz.com) will continue to be the landing point for AAG booking and information for a period before a media and branding relaunch in 2024. For additional information on rentals, sponsorship, or event programming at AAG, please reach out to the AAG team.

"We believe that with AAG - community comes first. We are positioned to manage this operation with world class service from today forward," said Chad Brownstein, Chairman of AZAA and RMR. Mesa is a special family community that we are pleased to be part of. AAG will strive to deliver a bespoke experience to our local and national guests. AAG intends to devote resources to the at-risk youth of Mesa and extended Phoenix Valley."

"I am pleased to close this complex acquisition," said Michael Burke, President of AZAA and Burke Operating Partners. "Under new and professional ownership, our management team, sports directors and staff are well-positioned to offer the highest-quality programming serving our valued customers and patrons. We will be rolling out innovative services such as dedicated concierges and logistical planning coordinators to support our guests, as well as integrated media services for families on and off the grounds. Continued facility improvements including family lodging and hospitality focused on sports and guest comfort will be implemented in 2024 and beyond."

"This acquisition serves as a strategic fit for the platform at Rocky Mountain Resources. With our focus on sports and infrastructure, we will directly apply a deep bench of human capital and strategic resources," said Jonathan Ma, Principal at RMR.

About Rocky Mountain Resources (www.rmrholdings.com): RMR is a private organization dedicated to owning and operating infrastructure and sporting assets. Founded in 2006, RMR is based in Los Angeles and Denver.

Media Contact: Elana Weiss The Rose Group elana@therosegrp.com

SOURCE Rocky Mountain Resources