There was more than just Bitwise in those Fresno buildings. Learn what businesses remain

When Fresno’s tech sector developer Bitwise collapsed in late May, many assumed the worst for the buildings that held its name.

The company certainly knew how to brand — its name is in tall letters on its flagship Bitwise South Stadium at Van Ness Avenue and on at three other buildings just off Highway 41 and Ventura Street. Even so, Bitwise largely served as a landlord, according to the collection of start-ups, nonprofits and other businesses still in the buildings.

“Some people may not realize it, but most of the office spaces in the Bitwise buildings were not occupied by Bitwise employees,” says Chris Collins, executive director of West African Vocational Schools, a nonprofit that has its office inside the South Stadium building.

“They’ve always been occupied by other companies and organizations who paid rent to Bitwise, just like they would at any other office building.”

Since Bitwise furloughed (and later terminated) its work staff, not much has changed for the non-Bitwise companies like WAVS. They continue to have access to the buildings and are operating under their original lease agreements (for the time being). The morning break-room coffee is gone and the tenants had to pitch in to keep the common areas clean and figure out how to distribute incoming mail while the new landlord was getting situated. But otherwise, “all the tenants have banded together here,” Collins said, “to make the most of a difficult and uncertain situation.”

A new landlord — Summa Properties — has taken over management at three of the four Bitwise buildings in Fresno. Ownership of the fourth property, the State Center Warehouse on R Street near Ventura, is still working its way through the courts.

The themes of the buildings — the iconic honeycomb on the Hive, for example — will remain. There will likely be some rebranding and the buildings may get renamed. But mostly, its all logistics right now, says Will Dyck, with Summa Properties. That means tasks like getting janitorial services started again, and making sure the HVAC units are all up and running.

“It’s a slow transition,” he says.

‘They All Stayed’

Everyone ended up staying, but it wasn’t without some anxiety.

The Summa-operated buildings had been owned by Baltara Enterprises since 2019 and operating under a 20-year lease to Bitwise, which had been subleasing space to the other tenants. In order to evict Bitwise and take back the properties, Baltara had to post “notices of belief of abandonment” signs on each of the three properties.

While the sub-tenants and co-working space users weren’t affected, Dyck knew they would have questions and was sure to attach his business card next to the notices.

In the end, the tenants were allowed to stay under their original lease terms, if they wanted.

“Big kudos to the tenants,” Dyck says. “They all stayed.”

In late May, Bitwise Industries delivered shocking news that it was furloughing its entire workforce of about 900 employees, which was spread over Fresno, Merced, Bakersfield, Oakland and seven other cities. The decade-old company served as a self-described “mothership” for technology-oriented entrepreneurs and companies and over time expanded to establish its four locations in downtown Fresno, along with its footprint in multiple cities across the country.

It’s unclear exactly why Bitwise imploded so dramatically and suddenly. An FBI investigation and other probes are underway. The company is currently in bankruptcy and its co-CEOS were fired, but a culture of optimism remains among the start-up tenants inside the buildings.

So, who is doing business in Bitwise’s Fresno buildings?

Along with several tech companies and nonprofits, tenants at the three Summa-operated buildings include a small financial firm, a lawyer’s office and film and production companies such as Meza Studios.

The mobile food truck La Jacka had just signed a three-year lease when news of the Bitwise collapse broke. La Jacka plans to keep the the lease and also its space inside the South Stadium building. It should have its grand opening by October. In the meantime, it will have its food truck on site for lunch (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) starting this week, with seating provided inside.

The South Stadium Building currently has the most tenants (just over two dozen) and is at 50% occupancy, Dyck says.

The Hive Building, on Ventura near Freeway 41, is at 30% occupancy.

There are currently two tenants at Bitwise 41 at Venture and R Streets.

That’s not ideal for the landlord, but it does serve as a bit of a selling point, Dyke says. The building is 47,000 square feet and has multiple large-scale office spaces that are move-in ready; something rare in downtown Fresno.

“That presents a unique opportunity,” Dyke says.

The tech sector, continued

Some of the businesses are continuing Bitwise’s work in the education and tech fields, if not directly, at least in spirit and form.

Three ex-Bitwise employees have joined forces to create Reclaim Technologies. The firm specializes in mobile app and website design and database management. It currently meets potential clients in a space inside the Hive.

Jennifer Kim was running a marketing company when she came to Fresno from Chicago in 2017. The following year, she pivoted to creating custom software and started Blockheads in a space she leased in the Hive building.

The company, which specializes in Web 3.0 blockchain technology, moved to the South Stadium building in 2020 where it continues to operate. Kim says she is looking to expand and will begin advertising services locally, something she hadn’t done in the past out of respect to Bitwise.

Side note: Kim helped Bitwise bring singer Lisa Loeb to town for a series of performances in 2018.

Quiq Labs is a legacy tenant and part of the concept behind Bitwise’s original function as a tech hub.

The company was started by Ohio natives and longtime friends Damon Thomas and Curlen Phipps in 2013 as one of the original tech companies inside Bitwise’s facility in downtown’s mural district. Before that, the pair had won the Fresno tech competition 59 Days of Code.

“We thought we’d just build some dope apps,” Thomas told The Bee, from a table inside the company’s current office downstairs in the South Stadium building.

It’s one of the building’s smaller spaces, just 371 square feet, with room enough for the table and a couch and a pair of side-by-side work stations. It was perfect when the company was just Thomas and Phipps building apps.

But the company now has more than 30 employees coming in and out of the site each day and needed to rent a storage space to keep all of its stuff.

Quiq Labs has also shifted its focus to technology and education, working with school districts (Fresno Unified and others) and adult education programs to offer workshops and bi-weekly mentorship meetups (through its non profit Learn S.T.E.A.M.). They’ve also created rePo!, an online resource portal that allows school districts to share technology related lesson plans.

The service is currently used by more than 300 schools.

Even before the Bitwise collapse, Quiq Labs was in need of a larger space and had looked at buildings in other parts of town, including at the Monarch in Chinatown and at Manchester Center on Blackstone. They just signed a lease on a 2,200-square-foot space and additional 1,500-square-foot classroom at the Bitwise 41 building.

“Technology isn’t dead,” Phipps says.

“There are abundant opportunities. And it’s going to continue and it’s going to grow,” he says.

Quiq Labs wants to be a continuation of the entrepreneurial ideals it showcased way back with the original 59 Days of Code competition.

“They definitely created a culture,” Phipps says, before Thomas adds. “It took that to bring us out of Starbuckses, out of our homes.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 5:30 AM.