Overview:
Hotel Fresno, a historic building located in the city’s downtown, celebrated its opening Thursday as a mixed-use affordable housing project.
The project, which has been delayed for years, introduced 81 new affordable housing units in a region desperate for more. The mayor said the project is part of an ambitious plan to get 10,000 people living in downtown Fresno.
More affordable housing units have been added to downtown Fresno as a part of a plan to get 10,000 people living in the heart of the city.
Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the historic Hotel Fresno — a building that has been vacant for decades before opening as an affordable housing project this year.
The project has been in the works since 2019 and has seen multiple delays, with previously reported opening dates including 2020 and 2022. The 81-unit building received about 2,000 move-in applications and has, as of this week, reached full occupancy.
The $36 million Hotel Fresno not only adds affordable housing to a region in need of more, but also represents the city’s hopes to revitalize its downtown.
“If you don’t have a great downtown, it’s hard to claim you have a great city,” said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer at the ceremony.
The Fresno housing market was recently ranked the ninth-most-competitive rental market in the entire country by Forbes. In 2019, fair market rent in Fresno was around $769 per month, HUD data shows. Now that same rental home goes for about $1,157, a 50% increase that pencils out to nearly $400 more monthly.
Dyer said the challenge of solving downtown revitalization is linked to helping deal with the region’s housing issues. He said that when his administration started, there were about 3,000 people living downtown. The mayor hopes that he can add 7,000 more people through projects like Hotel Fresno.
“We set up the goal of 10,000 people living downtown,” Dyer said, “and it is that 10,000 (figure) that will be the tipping point to turn our downtown into a greater downtown.
“We know there’s a desire for people to live downtown,” Dyer later added, “There’s a waiting list of people who want to live downtown, mostly from the ages of 20 to 40, but we don’t have the places for them to live.”
The Hotel Fresno housing project is a mixed-use development, with the first floor providing 10,000 square feet of commercial space available to be leased.
The project has seen many setbacks before completion, with reasons including pandemic-based supply shortages and delivery delays. Arias said, however, that the project was important due to the Hotel Fresno being registered locally and nationally as a historical landmark.
“As council members, we all pledged to leave the city in a better condition than we found it,” Arias said. “As a councilmember myself, I pledged to ensure that the historical assets of the city were not torn down but, instead, preserved by repurposing them for current and modern uses. The preservation of Hotel Fresno was the greatest test of the city’s commitment to match our rhetoric with action.”
Dyer also described the city’s aging infrastructure as another obstacle to new housing projects.
In an effort to build more housing units downtown, Dyer said he plans to beef up funding for infrastructure improvements over the next year.
“During (these) 12 months, you will see water mains and sewer mains replaced in both Chinatown and downtown…as well as some parking structures that will be built as well,” Dyer said. “There will be funding for sidewalk, streets, curbs and gutters, street lights, all of those things that will relieve a developer from having to pay for those things, because, as you will hear on this $36 million project, it makes it very, very difficult to pencil out if you don’t have subsidy from local and state government.”
The mayor has committed to helping ease the financial burden on developers before.
“If local government is going to be involved in housing and affordable housing, we have to share the risk in order to offset costs to developers,” Dyer said at the Fresno Housing Authority’s inaugural State Of Affordable Housing fundraiser event this year. “Local government must drive housing…If not, our unsheltered population in our community will increase dramatically.”
Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula, who has helped the city gain state and federal housing funds, said the 81 new units are an integral part of reaching the city’s “dream” for 10,000 people living downtown.
“We must see years of time and commitment and love for us to accomplish this project,” Arambula said.
Dyer also said the city can expect to see the introduction of 1,200 new affordable housing units in the next 12 months.
