High-speed rail construction isn’t the only thing stalling Fresno’s Chinatown rebirth

Fresno leaders have long had lofty ambitions for revitalizing the city’s neglected Chinatown neighborhood into an “international culinary district.”

Similar to other former ethnic enclaves in Downtown Fresno, such as Armenian Town, Chinatown has been deteriorated by obvious issues like crime, neglect and age.

But, unlike other blighted areas in Fresno, the neighborhood adjacent to downtown has had to grapple with two distinct challenges — California High-Speed Rail construction and a proliferation of storage space.

Chinatown Project Manager Jan Minami says there are 43 flat ground parcels in the neighborhood, 35 of which are either being used for storage or are “underused.”

“We’re trying to figure out how to convince the property owners that [storage] just for a ground-floor place doesn’t make any sense,” Minami says. “It does not help revitalization.”

Minami said it all started in the 1960s, when redevelopment agencies flattened Chinatown’s buildings and promised to build housing.

“Maybe they did in other cities in California, but they didn’t in Fresno,” she said. “There was no housing built in Chinatown.”

According to Chinatown’s website, historic buildings were demolished, buildings became vacant and residents moved elsewhere. Since then, those who stayed in the neighborhood have been trying to piece together a puzzle with stolen pieces.

Now, Minami says it’s about incentivizing property owners to optimize their properties and turn their storage spaces into commercial establishments.

But for property owners hoping the rail project brings them a long-awaited economic boom, it’s not that simple.

Alejandro Cervantes’ family has owned the Vista Hermosa bakery in Chinatown on the corner of Kern and E streets for about 35 years. He also owns a few buildings down Kern Street that he rents to tenants and is in the process of upgrading them.

Cervantes says the promise of a booming High Speed Rail zone has kept many other property owners in Chinatown waiting to bring life back into the neighborhood.

“Some people are just trying to wait for that big economic boom,” he said.

The high-speed rail project’s estimated completion dates have been pushed back several times since voters passed a bond in 2008 to launch construction. The project, which has intermittently closed streets in downtown and Chinatown due to construction, is now scheduled to launch revenue service in the Central Valley sometime in 2033.

Chinatown has been waiting.

Given these delays, Cervantes said Chinatown’s investment appeal has sunk. Construction has also closed three main entrances into Chinatown.

“They just opened up Tulare Street a couple of months ago, I’m grateful for that,” Cervantes said. “But at the same time I’m disappointed because … it took them literally like eight years to do that underground on Tulare Street.”

A prime spot for high-speed rail construction is in front of the renowned Chinatown Central Fish Company, owned by Morgan Doizaki. Doizaki says that, when it comes to actually getting to the Central Fish building, the construction makes navigation difficult.

Doizaki also owns two other buildings in Chinatown that he inherited in 2019. When the pandemic hit, he made sure his tenants knew that they weren’t being evicted. Now, he says he wishes things went differently.

“Half of them just used it as storage,” Doizaki said. “In hindsight, I really should have said that it would be beneficial to Central Fish and the community if they would not use their space for storage.”

From Doizaki’s perspective, high-speed rail brought a major pit into Chinatown.

“I think right before high-speed rail gave us notice that they’re coming into town, I want to say that was the bottom point of Chinatown,” he says.

Simultaneously, Doizaki said the bullet-train project is a source of hope for the community. He said that with all the construction, they haven’t seen this much progress being made since the 1970s.

Though Doizaki wishes he told the tenants using his building space to vacate if they’re simply using it for storage, he believes there is a large demand and opportunity in Chinatown.

“It’s gotten a bad rap for so many years, but it’s special — it’s a special place to be” he said.

In the future, Doizaki hopes to convert some of his building space into work-live style apartments, where residents can essentially have their office and their living space in the same building.

“It’s something unique that Fresno really doesn’t have yet,” he said.

Cervantes said that the pandemic also prompted some businesses to slow down, like the owner of the building across the street from Vista Hermosa. Right now, it’s an empty building with some livable space in the back.

“I talked to him and he’s waiting for Chinatown to grow more,” Cervantes said.

Through all of this, Vista Hermosa and Central Fish have remained. Cervantes said it’s because the store has been around for decades and built up a loyal customer base outside of Chinatown.

“I mean, where else am I going to go?” Cervantes said.

Though it has seen its fair share of rough patches, Chinatown began in the 1860s, and it appears that it’s not going anywhere.

“I believe that there is a strong demand for small, intimate places that, you know, Chinatown is,” Doizaki said.