Young professionals are the face of an evolving downtown Fresno

New apartments and remodeled lofts have sprung up all over downtown Fresno, a place many had once written off.

Although revitalizing downtown still has a ways to go, the new homes are filling up.

Just who is moving there?

The answer you often hear is “young professionals.”

Young people moving to urban centers is a trend that’s happening nationwide. “Boomerangs” — people who left their hometown but return after working in other cities — often seek out an urban environment, at least before they have children.

In Fresno, some of the young professionals living downtown work at big offices there, but increasingly, “a lot of individuals are in a more creative field. They have a more flexible schedule,” says Aaron Blair, president and CEO of the Downtown Fresno Partnership.

That combination of youth and creativity energizes things, he says. “It’s awesome for us because of the creativity that a lot of these people bring to the table, the generation of ideas and openness of coming up with solutions.”

Blair says the younger generation seems to lack the cynicism of some of its older counterparts. You rarely hear phrases like “That’s not going to work,” or “No one is ever going to come there,” come out their mouths, he says.

Many have deliberately moved downtown to be a part of the changes happening there and to push it along.

Just who are they?

Some live at 1612 Fulton, which opened in 2013 at Fulton Street near San Joaquin Street. The building, built by Granville Homes, has a giant butterfly mural on one end and a salon on the other. Each of 12 live/work spaces rent for about $1,600 a month, with office space on the ground floor and two floors of living space above and a garage. Several more typical living spaces are behind it.

A sampling of residents at 1612 revealed they have their own reasons for moving downtown. But they all share a desire to play a role in an evolving downtown.

Here’s three of their stories.

The community activists

Sergio Cortes bluntly refers to himself and his wife Ashley as “crazy downtown fanatics.”

Sergio, 30, and Ashley, 27, are Lowell community activists who moved to downtown Fresno with plans to make a difference.

They run their business, video production, website and graphic design company Agape Creative Studios, out of the ground-floor office. Ashley was the interim general manager at Peeve’s Public House & Local Market on Fulton Mall before leaving to work at Agape full time.

The couple also founded the No More Slumlords campaign.

Upstairs, they share living space with roommate Veronica Stumpf, 24, who runs That Fresno Blog, which focuses on downtown.

Sergio Cortes is an extrovert who takes every chance he gets to talk to people, including random strangers, about downtown. Usually he breaks the ice by telling them he’s an Instagram photographer documenting downtown on the @surgecortes account. He takes a photo and turns it into a conversation about what’s happening in downtown.

The Corteses intentionally schedule client meetings in their office so they can show people downtown.

“Most of our clients haven’t been to downtown before and they’re pretty astonished about what they see,” Sergio says.

They host monthly Art Hop events at the business and frequently offer tours of their home — sometimes to total strangers. They figure that the more people learn about downtown living, the better. Their dining room is open for community meetings, hence the giant wipe board.

“This is who we are supposed to be as people, loving our neighbors and taking care of our cities,” Sergio says.

Years before, they honed their community-building skills at “The Pink House,” a Fresno Institute for Urban Leadership live-in program at Calaveras and L streets. After, Sergio, who’s from the Corona area, and Ashley, from Fresno and Tollhouse, moved into the Lowell neighborhood. They worked as on-site managers at an apartment complex and Sergio served on various community boards.

When the pair saw a news story about tires being slashed on H Street downtown and learned about darkened streetlights not being addressed, they realized that downtown didn’t have the network of community groups and willingness to advocate for its neighborhood that Lowell did.

“My wife and I felt called to start something like that here,” Sergio says.

Their roommate, Stumpf, is a commercial real estate broker in her family business Stumpf and Company Real Estate and specializes in downtown. She’s also co-chair of the Downtown Academy, an 11-month program that teaches young professionals about revitalizing downtown.

Stumpf operates under the theory that you can’t drag people to experience downtown. She brings it to them through the blog, Instagram photos and other social media in hopes they’ll see what’s happening there.

She shares the vision the Corteses have for downtown.

“We fell in love with this canvas,” Sergio Cortes says. “It’s not completely painted yet. We love the direction it’s going.”

The yoga teacher

Mung bean sprouts, fresh-pressed juice and raw food are often on the table at Anna Moore’s home a few doors down.

Her home is like no other in Fresno: It’s a yoga studio, a fresh juice company, a stopover spot for traveling musicians and generally a hub of healthy living.

The yoga teacher and actress, 31, moved to the area to be closer to her boyfriend and business partner. Although her lifestyle may seem like a Southern California cliché to some Fresnans, Moore is serious about healthy living.

“I’m really passionate about connecting with other people who like a healthy lifestyle. It’s a huge part of my calling to be around community and create community.”

She splits her time between downtown Fresno, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Moore grew up in Berkeley and previously lived in a “community house” in Santa Monica — several people living and running businesses in a four-bedroom house that was always open for parties and events.

She’s brought that style of living to Fresno, moving into 1612 Fulton in August. Today, the Fulton Yoga Collective is run in the open living and kitchen area on the home’s second floor. Up to 16 people spread around the kitchen’s center island doing sun salutations and other yoga poses. Sun tea steeps on the home’s balcony for a “tea party” after every yoga class.

The apartment is also a home base for Moore’s California Juice Company. Pickups and deliveries of raw, organic carrot juice and other juices made by her business are scheduled from the home.

On the top floor, one bedroom is reserved for the couple, and the other is a “wellness room.” It’s available for professionals to meet with clients for massage, aromatherapy or as a place for traveling musicians to stay.

Get-togethers are common and there’s always organic Champagne chilling in the refrigerator.

“I don’t personally drink,” she says. “I just love to celebrate. I feel like every day is a special occasion.”

Moore says she’s had plenty of naysayers here tell her what they don’t like about Fresno. So she started to seek out people who love Fresno.

“And I found them. I have connected with so many people who love Fresno. … I feel very passionately that I am where I am supposed to be.”

The urbanites

One of the most noticeable spaces at 1612 Fulton is Evolve Vintage. The ground floor window is covered in a bright-red-and-yellow pop art image of a woman’s face.

Inside is the vintage store run by friends Gabriella Chavez, 34, and Hayley Botwin, 27. The roommates and longtime friends bought the downtown business and over a year ago moved it to 1612. They sell mid-century modern lamps, small furniture and the occasional vintage Superman lunchbox displayed on hand-built shelves patterned after a Tetris game.

The pair have lived and traveled all over the world.

Botwin, from Ventura County, studied abroad and lived in Boston. She spent four years traveling to Australia, France and the United Kingdom recruiting workers for the summer camp she worked for.

Chavez, from Visalia, worked at hotels and restaurants in San Diego, the Bay Area and Cape Cod.

Both decided to come back to the Valley and to downtown Fresno specifically, a move that leaves some people flummoxed.

But all that travel is why Fresno appealed to Botwin, she says.

“It does have that vibrant appeal of city life in a smaller, quainter way,” she said.

For Chavez, being close to family drew her back to the Valley. But she says she was also attracted to the arts scene — especially the monthly Art Hop events — and community of people who care about downtown Fresno.

“I like to see some movers and groovers, people shaking it up and making things happen,” she says.

The pair host an Art Hop event at Evolve Vintage each month, planting musicians on their home’s balcony to entertain.

Chavez says she’s heard people say there’s nothing to do downtown. Her response is, “Really? There’s so much.” She rattles off a list: Grizzlies games, Art Hop, Misc. Trading Co’s monthly vintage sidewalk pop-up sales, the Kern Street farmers market, tea at Raizana Tea Company and the beer garden and food trucks at Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Company.

“That right there reminds me of being someplace else,” she says of the beer garden. “It gives the big-city vibe that people say is not here.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Young professionals are the face of an evolving downtown Fresno."