Has work stalled at Mariposa Plaza renovation in Downtown Fresno? What we found
Connie Rivera, a stylist at the La Moda beauty salon in downtown Fresno, has been running into clients at Foodmaxx and Walmart who ask her what is going on behind the shop.
“’Connie, is your godmother’s shop closed?’” Rivera said she hears from the clients. “’We passed by and it looked that way.’”
Teresa Negrete, Rivera’s godmother and owner of La Moda, estimates that business has dropped 35-40% since the city broke ground on the Mariposa Plaza renovation project March 22. Chain-link fencing and large orange barricades have stood around the plaza since then despite a lack of visible progress on construction. Shop operators on and near the plaza say the blockade is only hurting their businesses by driving customers away.
“Why would they start the project, close it off and then just stop?” Negrete said.
In an email to The Fresno Bee, the city said the contractor for the renovation project came across unexpected conditions after groundbreaking, but that construction is expected to resume in four to six weeks. The fencing, however, will remain in place, possibly until November.
Mariposa Plaza, located at the intersection of Fulton and Mariposa streets, is set for a $4 million “Activation Project” that will add performance stages, shading, seating, new trees and permanent underground electrical infrastructure that will allow ice skating in the square during the winter months. The renovation of the plaza, which is a short walk from the site of Fresno’s future high-speed rail station at Mariposa and H streets, is part of the city’s larger plans to spend almost $300 million in state grants awarded last year to upgrade downtown’s infrastructure and attract 7,000 more residents to the area.
Those plans also face delays because of California’s estimated $46.8 billion budget deficit, which led Gov. Gavin Newsom to defer two $100 million grant allocations to Fresno to later years. But Mariposa Plaza’s renovations are being funded mostly with state grant dollars that the city was awarded years prior.
After the plaza’s groundbreaking ceremony, the city’s email said, crews began preparing the plaza for construction by removing art benches, screens and plaques that will later be reinstalled. They also began “demolition work, tree removal and potholing.”
The city said the project’s overall timeline has not been affected, as “it was anticipated that construction would be suspended at some point, while we wait for long lead electrical components to arrive.” The plaza renovations will occur in two phases and are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Phase 1, the city said, involves the improvement of the majority of the plaza while maintaining the concrete in the Phase 2 area so that pedestrians can continue to access two businesses whose entrances directly face the plaza.
“Currently, the plaza is fenced off, but the fence is positioned to allow continued access to both La Moda and Mas Fresno as is detailed in the approved plans,” the city’s email said. “The plaza will be accessible to the public once the Phase 1 portion is completed, which is estimated to be mid-November.”
The fencing is placed in a manner that allows access to the La Moda beauty salon, but the view of the shop’s entrance from passersbys on Mariposa Street is disrupted by the chain-link fencing and barricades. That is what causes passersby to think La Moda is closed, said Rivera, the La Moda stylist.
Avinando Tobillo, who has worked for decades at Herrera’s Joyeria, a jewelry store on Fulton Street a few shops south of Mariposa Plaza, said the barriers are hurting business along the whole block. Several other shop operators and employees between Herrera’s Joyeria and Mariposa Plaza agreed.
“It’s driving people away,” Tobillo said in Spanish. “There are fewer clients since the project started, and this is going to continue. If I were a client and I drove by and saw all the barriers, I would not come shop on Fulton.”
Elliot Balch, president of the Downtown Fresno Partnership, said he understands the concerns of business owners along Fulton Street, but also said the city has processes to follow as it carries out this “very important, necessary work.”
He said the Mariposa Plaza site came with extra complications for construction because there used to be a hotel on the plaza and the adjacent building, making “the underground parts more complicated than usual.”
Balch said that, as Fresno’s full downtown revitalization plans move forward, people should expect disruptions to the area’s alleyways and usual traffic patterns.
“Maybe what this is teaching us is that, with downtown, things are complicated underground, and to shade a little bit on the side of doing more pre-analysis to get ahead of possible unusual circumstances that you wouldn’t find in other parts of town,” Balch said.
This story was originally published July 6, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
