What’s at stake?
Several key corridors within Chinatown are undergoing extensive construction as the California High Speed Rail Authority builds its Fresno station – one entrance to which will be in Chinatown, the other downtown.
The sound of jackhammers in Fresno’s construction-addled Chinatown halted briefly Monday morning – just long enough for city leaders to reveal plans for more construction down the road.
City leaders called for quiet along F Street on Monday morning to announce the demolition of Chinatown’s historic Bow On Tong building. The city plans to build affordable housing in place of the vacant structure that’s been condemned since a devastating fire in March 2022.
“I would love for us to wait for private development to come in and do all of this. But if that were going to be the case, it would have already happened,” said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer at Monday’s news conference.
“For many many years, we’ve seen this area, which was originally abandoned, and now left behind,” he added, “continue to have vacant buildings. We need to step in as a city to provide some of the things that are needed for developers to come in and build.”
Though the city has yet to put out the project for bid or secure a developer, the goal is to construct 35 housing units at the site.
That’s just a drop in the bucket of Fresno’s broader need for affordable housing: In 2022, Dyer’s One Fresno Housing Strategy set a goal of building an additional 6,100 affordable housing units over the following three years.
City spokesperson Sontaya Rose said in an email Monday afternoon that the units “will be affordable,” but added that “the broader vision for Chinatown is a mixed-income community.”
Councilmember Miguel Arias told Fresnoland there’s a possibility for some market-rate apartments as part of the project, but added that will be decided later once the city starts receiving bids on the project from housing developers.
The announcement comes at a time when the streets of Chinatown are choked by construction for the state’s High Speed Rail project as well as related city infrastructure developments: “short-term pain for long-term gain,” Dyer said Monday in an appeal to those businesses for patience.
“We want Chef Paul’s to stay in business,” he added, “Cuca’s, a number of the other places here in Chinatown. We’re working closely with all of them.”
When asked about the project, Jan Minami, project director of the nonprofit Chinatown Fresno Foundation, said the organization supports “housing that supports the commercial nature of our neighborhood.”
“Because it’s the middle of our commercial neighborhood, we very much encourage ground-floor retail” in the future project, she added, “and we’ll help them fill it.”
End of an era for the Bow On Tong building
The Bow On Tong building was once a joss house, or Chinese temple, which provided a place of spiritual worship as well as housing for Chinese immigrants in the earliest chapters of Fresno’s history, city officials said.
But after a fire in March 2022, the city condemned the over 100-year-old building. It later determined the building was unfit for rehabilitation after acquiring it in January from the now-defunct corporation, Chinatown Revitalization, Inc.
The City of Fresno bought the historic building for roughly $67,000, Dyer said. The funding for the acquisition and demolition come from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), Rose confirmed in an email Tuesday.
The office has promised a whopping $250 million for downtown revitalization, on top of a $43.7 million Infill Infrastructure Grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Fresno has received only $50 million of the promised funding from GoBiz so far, Dyer reiterated Monday, though he added that he’s hopeful to see another $100 allocated in Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision of the proposed state budget.
Arias, who represents Chinatown on the council, estimated the planned housing project on the site of the old building would cost somewhere between $15 and $25 million. He added that the city has sufficient funding from existing sources to see it through to completion.
Dyer said the Bow On Tong site is part of a broader work to revitalize Chinatown – with or without High Speed Rail.
The latter project, already beset by years’ worth of delays, faces renewed uncertainty after the Trump administration announced an upcoming audit.
“I do think one of the biggest drawbacks has been,” Dyer said, “people have purchased buildings and not done anything with them in hopes that High Speed Rail would be developed. And the delays of High Speed Rail being developed has caused many of these buildings in downtown and Chinatown to remain vacant.
“So we have to step in now and do our part.”
Construction timelines in Chinatown
Several key corridors within Chinatown are undergoing extensive construction as the California High Speed Rail Authority builds its Fresno station – one entrance to which will be in Chinatown, the other downtown.
Simultaneously, the city is working on water and sewer infrastructure improvements and installing street lights and trees in Chinatown with other state investments that came in the wake of the massive state project.
Those projects have shut down key roadways connecting Chinatown to downtown and where Chinatown businesses are concentrated, including E Street, F Street, G Street, Tulare Street and Kern Street.
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel for businesses weathering the storm of orange cones and jackhammers, city officials promised Monday, with some of the infrastructure construction projects anticipated to be complete around October.
In an email Monday afternoon, Rose, the city spokesperson, said the city expects the “bulk” of water and sewer infrastructure replacements to be complete then, which includes work along F Street, G Street, Inyo Street, Kern Street, Tulare Street and Mariposa Street.
“These upgrades are essential to support housing and business development in Chinatown,” she said.
As for High Speed Rail construction, though that project faces uncertainty amid federal questioning, Dyer made a commitment not to authorize additional road closures.
“We have worked with High Speed Rail,” he said, “and we’re not closing down any more streets until other streets open.”
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