Mesa brands Asian District corridor

Arizona’s largest cluster of Asian restaurants and shops is now formally called the “Asian District” in Mesa and will launch a branding push with a night market on Feb. 29.

A number of names were in the running — a survey included choices ranging from Little Asia and Dragon District to Asia Town and Mesa Asian Neighborhood — before the city and stakeholders unveiled Asian District, Mesa, AZ.

The 2-mile corridor along Dobson Road and the surrounding west Mesa area is home to nearly 90 Asian-related businesses including restaurants, grocery stores and other service-oriented businesses. The area largely grew organically, and the city jumped on the opportunity to brand and promote the area.

“This area has the highest concentration of Asian businesses and Asian-related businesses in the state, so it is a destination in and of itself,” said Jaye O’Donnell, Mesa’s assistant economic development director.

The already-popular district will come to life the evening of Feb. 29 for the Asian District Night Market, a night of Asian food and entertainment.

Vicente Reid, chief executive of the Arizona-based Asian Chamber of Commerce, has been working with the city on Asian District branding for nearly a year. His group is leading the night market event, which he calls a “foodie concert.”

The night market will feature more than 65 food and retail vendors from across the Valley and entertainers from the across the region. Popular FilipinoAmerican musician AJ Rafael will be one of the performers and there will even be LED-illuminated stilt walkers, Reid said.

“It’s a platform and opportunity for artists and food vendors and entertainers to come and really showcase their culture and then for the public and the event attendees to come and celebrate Asian culture and a wide variety of Asian cultures,” O’Donnell said.

The chamber has hosted pop-up night market events in Phoenix, but this is a “new rendition” with “so, so, so much,” Reid said. Proceeds from the Mesa event will support the chamber’s community programs and scholarships, he said.

Reid said the night market is open to all and is kid-friendly.

“I’d really like to emphasize how important this is for the community,” he said. “We’ve had some really xenophobic and racist behavior as of late, so we want to use this to educate the public and say, ‘We’re here, this is Mesa, we have all these great vendors, come be a part of this community.’”

The event will run from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at the AZ International Marketplace at 1920 W. Broadway Road. General admission tickets are $8. VIP tickets are $50 and include access to the VIP lounge and unlimited drinks. Tickets are sold on the Facebook event page.

The Facebook event had more than 1,500 people registered as going and nearly 20,000 as interested as of Tuesday. Interested volunteers can sign up at azasianchamber.com.

What’s in the Asian District

The district includes 58 restaurants, 17 services, eight retail and five grocery businesses, according to a spreadsheet on the district’s website.

Along with the new branding is the ambition for the area to become the Southwest’s most vibrant center for Asian culture, community and commerce. Mayor John Giles, in his State of the City address, listed a number of his favorite Asian District foods, ranging from bibimbap and barbecue fish to kimchi pork fries and bubble tea.

The area will soon be home to Arizona’s first H Mart, a popular Korean supermarket chain. It’ll open at 1919 W. Main St., on the southeast corner of Dobson Road and Main Street. In addition to groceries, the store will feature a food hall with Korean, Japanese, Chinese and fusion food, and it plans to also open a bar.

Mesa’s population is about 2% Asian American, but in areas surrounding the district, Asian Americans make up 4% to 11% of the population, according to Mesa’s Office of Economic Development. Asian Americans are among the fastest growing minority group in Arizona and the nation.

The area is popular with international students from Arizona State University and even visitors from places like Tucson and Flagstaff who come specifically for the Asian District’s grocery stores, O’Donnell said.

The district is anchored by Mekong Supermarket and characterized by the area surrounding Dobson Road with three main clusters of Asian-owned businesses:

❚ Between Main Street and Broadway Road.

❚ Near the intersection of Road and Southern Avenue.

❚ At Three Fountains Plaza on South Longmore Road.

“There aren’t hard borders,” O’Donnell said of the district. “It’s fluid right now,” with new Asian businesses popping up in areas surrounding Dobson Road.

Future plans

Dobson

O’Donnell said the night market is the first of many events in the Asian District. She said future efforts will work to promote the area through such things as monthly special events and food truck festivals, but likely on a smaller scale than the night market.

Reid said if the night market goes well, he hopes his organization will lead events in the district more often, with the next big one possibly this fall.

In the meantime, a city-led committee may explore new models for how to best promote the area, O’Donnell said. Reid said there have been discussions that the committee could become a separate organization that collaborates with the city in the interests of the Asian District.

There also may be new investments to increase the district’s visibility, such as signs similar to what the city uses to promote Mesa’s Fiesta District, Falcon District and Elliot Road Technology Corridor, depending on city finances, O’Donnell said.

“It’s a redevelopment area, so it makes sense for us to work on improving aesthetics in that area and making sure there’s a sense of arrival to the district,” O’Donnell said, possibly through banners on light poles, posters around traffic signal boxes or standalone signs along the corridor.