Mesa Mayor John Giles has been working to get a branch of Arizona State University built in his city’s downtown for years.
At his 2016 State of the City address, Giles posed with ASU’s mascot, Sparky, after plans were announced for an extensive partnership between the university and the city to build just that.
But Mesa voters rejected that proposal. It turned out they didn’t want the tax increase needed to pay for it.
Now another deal is in the works.
The Mesa City Council will vote Monday night on whether or not to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with ASU to build a development in its downtown.
This time, it will commit to building one building for ASU, which will house new technology programs like gaming and virtual reality — and it won’t include any tax increases for Mesa residents.
All along, Giles has said that ASU is what downtown Mesa needs.
