Mesa awaits fallout of resort Gaylord's reorganization

What many Mesa residents had long feared now seems inevitable: A world-class resort and conference center on the north end of the former General Motors Desert Proving Ground probably never will be built as originally planned. As phone calls ricochet back and forth among Mesa officials, the Gaylord Entertainment Co. and DMB Associates, which owns the property, that is the clearest statement that can be made about fallout from last week's announcement that Gaylord is getting out of the resort-development business. The Nashville-based company knocked Mesa's socks off in September 2008 when it announced it would build a hotel of at least 1,200 rooms and an adjoining convention center. Coupled with another resort, a championship golf course and high-end retail, Mesa officials estimated a total investment of about $1 billion. That was to have been the grand kickoff for DMB's development of 5 square miles of former GM land, a project now known as Eastmark. Mesa voters endorsed the plan and its associated tax incentives by an 84-16 percent margin in March 2009.

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