Downtown Fresno’s vacancy woes: stalled plans, absentee owners, fire concerns
Here are five stories about downtown Fresno’s struggles with vacant buildings.
A list of long-delayed downtown Fresno apartment projects
Downtown Fresno developers have long touted new apartments, but many projects have stalled. Officials say demand is strong, but that the holdup is financing amid rising construction costs.
The city is upgrading infrastructure and offering short-term gap loans, while Councilmember Miguel Arias faults developers for waiting for public money.
Some examples of delayed plans include: Lance‑Kashian’s 54‑unit Uptown Apartments, The Park @ South Stadium’s 100-plus units, the Helm’s building’s 99 units, and the former JC Penney building’s 160 units. Click here to read the full story.
Do vacant buildings, absentee owners raise Fresno fire risk?
After a late-1800s building burned in Fresno’s Chinatown, community members urged absentee owners to secure vacant properties. While city code requires registration and security at vacant properties, enforcement is reactive and based on complaints. The city has 322 code enforcement cases against vacant building owners (36% in District 3), and the fire department reports at least 78 vacant-structure fires and 3,617 homelessness-related fires in 2025. Click here to read the full story.
Old casino space in downtown Fresno still empty after 5 years. Why?
Downtown Fresno’s former Club One Casino — 26,000 square feet at Van Ness Avenue and Tulare Street — has sat vacant since pandemic closures in 2020 and has been listed for lease since January 2021. A Fortune Associates agent says the owners want an entertainment tenant, but that downtown’s leasing market is tough. Adjacent vacancies, including a shuttered former hotel, and county offices moving to Clovis have sapped foot traffic. Click here to read the full story.
Blight on Fulton Street concerns Fresno’s Warnors Theatre
A long-vacant, 9,500-square-foot building at 1440 Fulton St., owned by an LLC cited multiple times for public nuisance abatement costs, sits next door to the Warnors Theatre. The director of the historic theater says she fears people will break into the building and start a fire that spreads. The building’s manager, Gustavo Lopez, denies pest infestations and says the site is checked weekly. Bought in 2018 by Phix LLC, the building has been vacant since and is now listed for sale at $795,000. Click here to read the full story.
Will Fresno’s $20M loan fund for downtown developers help?
The city of Fresno is offering $20 million-worth of 36‑month, 5.5% loans to spur “shovel‑ready” multifamily construction or major building rehabs in Chinatown and downtown’s core. The city would like to activate long‑vacant sites as it tries to triple downtown’s population to 10,000. Funded by state infrastructure dollars, loans up to $8 million per project will provide short‑term gap financing, with a heavy emphasis on market‑rate units. Some well-known developers with stalled plans have applied for loans. Click here to read the full story.
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 7:27 PM.
