We consider the unitary matrix model in the limit where the size of the matrices become infinite and in the critical situation when a new spectral band is about to emerge. In previous works the number of expected eigenvalues in a neighborhood of the band was fixed and finite, a situation that was termed "birth of a cut" or "first colonization". We now consider the transitional regime where this microscopic population in the new band grows without bounds but at a slower rate than the size of the matrix.The local population in the new band organizes in a "mesoscopic" regime, in between the macroscopic behavior of the full system and the previously studied microscopic one. The mesoscopic colony may form a finite number of new bands, with a maximum number dictated by the degree of criticality of the original potential. We describe the delicate scaling limit that realizes/controls the mesoscopic colony.The method we use is the steepest descent analysis of the Riemann-Hilbert problem that is satisfied by the associated orthogonal polynomials.