SoCal Presbyterian Homes plans second Clovis complex next door to first.

Written by The Fresno Bee
08/04/08 08:36:03

The waiting list for L.C. Hotchkiss Terrace senior apartment complex in Clovis totals 90 people. So it shouldn't be too surprising to learn the developer plans to build a similar project next door.

Southern California Presbyterian Homes, which opened L.C. Hotchkiss Terrace in 2006, has received final approval for the $9 million, 60-unit Garden View Terrace. The housing complex will be built on the site of a Baptist church near Barstow and Minnewawa avenues, adjacent to the first project.

"Need is the driver for this kind of housing," said Sally Little, vice president of affordable housing at Glendale-based Southern California Presbyterian Homes. "We're finding a lot of modest-income seniors in Fresno and Clovis."

The designer of the first complex, Matalon Architecture & Planning of San Diego, is designing Garden View Terrace. The colors, materials and some elements will be similar, and access to both developments will be through the same entrance. However, the shape of the lot dictates that Garden View will have a more linear layout, said Michael Matalon.

City officials have approved Garden View Terrace, and the developers have applied for a Housing and Urban Development grant to help finance it. If the money is approved in October, construction could be under way next summer, Matalon said.

Getting the Point(e)

Soaring fuel prices are causing business leaders to reconsider the way they do business. "It is impacting the decision-making of virtually every business we are talking to," said Ethan Smith, an industrial specialist at Grubb & Ellis/Pearson Commercial in Fresno.

Smith is helping market North Pointe Business Park, a 230-acre master-planned development near North and Orange avenues. It might be just coincidence, but more companies from outside the area are showing interest in the business park, which is within a day's drive of almost the entire state -- an important feature to users of UPS and other ground transportation.

Five buildings totaling 420,000 square feet are complete or nearly finished at the business park. That represents about 25% of the first phase.

A 5,500-square-foot lease signed by the newest tenant, Motion Industries, filled the second building, a 49,000-square-foot structure that houses eight businesses. Motion Industries, which moved from another local site, distributes bearings, power transmission products, hoses, hydraulic and pneumatic products and the like.

Corporate Express occupied the first building of 110,000 square feet. The third structure of 86,000 square feet has one tenant using 26,000 square feet and companies interested in leasing much of the remainder, Smith said.

The fourth and fifth buildings are under construction.

When the two phases are done, North Pointe could contain 4 million square feet of businesses.

Caring for kids

A new day-care center is planned for Clovis, and it's headed into one of the fastest-growing sections of town.

City planners approved a request for Graham and Kristin Peterson to operate a 4,368-square-foot day-care center (with a 6,200-square-foot play area) near the northeast corner of Fowler and Austin avenues.

That area in southeast Clovis experienced a building boom in the first half of this decade, with hundreds of homes built and planned.