City plans to raze old Fresno Bee downtown office. Could new soccer stadium fit site?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- City plans to demolish 295,227‑sq‑ft Fresno Bee building on 14.8 acres.
- Officials cite high operating costs, fire risks after break‑ins.
- Property could theoretically fit a minimum 5,000‑seat stadium.
The city of Fresno is moving forward with plans to knock down The Fresno Bee’s massive former office building at 1626 E Street downtown that sits on more than 14 acres.
Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White said Thursday that the city is preparing bid documents for the demolition of the 295,227-square-foot building, located on a 14.8-acre property the city bought in 2021 for $5.75 million.
“It’s not a building that is usable for us,” White said during Thursday’s City Council meeting. “It’s so expensive to operate, and it’s so big.”
The announcement comes weeks after the city announced it will be looking for space downtown where a new soccer stadium could be built as Fresno tries to attract a professional team through a United Soccer League partnership. City leaders have committed to a downtown or Chinatown stadium, but have not shared specific potential locations — though, theoretically, the property’s size is visibly more than enough to accommodate a minimum-5,000-seat stadium.
White’s announcement also followed comments from downtown Councilmember Miguel Arias, who said he was concerned the building could be set on fire during a break-in. He said it would be a “10-alarm fire” because of its massive size and past use as an industrial print shop.
“I want to avoid that level of contamination,” he said before the council voted to cancel a $2.6 million project intended to improve the aging building.
Fresno Bee operated in E Street building for more than 40 years
The Bee began operations in 1922 in a building on Van Ness Avenue, on the northern edge of downtown, which is now used by Fresno’s Community Media Access Collaborative, or CMAC.
The large location at 1626 E St. was constructed in the early 1970s and was first a production facility. The newspaper had moved all of its operations to the E Street property, including the news and advertising teams, in 1976.
Big investments in the 1990s added the latest printing technology to the building. But by the mid-2010s, there was little need for a building intended for physical newspaper production. The Bee announced in 2020 it would be leaving the E Street building for a space owned at the time by Bitwise Industries.
Break-ins pose fire risk for old Fresno Bee building, maintenance is expensive
After the city’s Department of Public Utilities bought the former Bee building in 2021, it moved operations there but only occupied about 15,000 square feet, according to a city report about the property. Additional city departments used it for storage and overflow operations, the report says.
Last year, the building’s central air conditioning system “failed catastrophically,” and the utilities department relocated, the report says.
Paul Amico, director of the utilities department, said during Thursday’s council meeting that the city has had to increase security patrols at the building after a recent break-in. The city also has to keep the building’s power running for its fire protection system, which is serviced every month.
Amico said Fresno police officers often use the parking lot when they need a place to write their reports. The Fresno police and fire departments have also used the building for training and are interested in continuing to use it, he said.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 5:40 AM.
