As Fresno grew, Assemis farmed 330+ acres of southwest land zoned for housing
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Assemis bought Mission Ranch in 2013, pushed city to allow farming on residential land.
- Assemis occupied huge part of southwest Fresno available housing land, never built homes.
- Family has lost 330-acres of ranch during federal lawsuits over defaulted loans.
The approximately 330 acres of land recently sold in southwest Fresno for an estimated $14 million has a history of failed hopes spurred by developers, including by the Assemi family, known in the Central Valley for farming and housing construction.
After Assemi family members bought the residentially zoned land now known as Mission Ranch in 2013, they successfully pushed the Fresno City Council to amend city law to allow large-scale commercial farming on land that was designated for homes. The Fresno Bee’s archived reporting shows southwest community leaders initially objected but were eventually convinced the farming operation on a huge portion of southwest Fresno’s residentially-zoned land would be temporary.
Granville Homes, today owned wholly by Darius Assemi, said then that a master-planned community was the long-term goal for Mission Ranch. The demand for its homes didn’t exist yet in southwest Fresno, but its day would come as the market rebounded, the firm said at the time, according to The Bee’s archives.
In the years since, other parts of Fresno added thousands of new homes, according to a study presented to the City Council last year. The Assemis continued to farm Mission Ranch as southwest Fresno, a historically neglected area, lagged behind the rest of the city in terms of housing growth.
“Allowing the land to be used for farming instead of housing is one of many decisions that past leaders made that set west Fresno further behind,” City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who represents the area, told The Fresno Bee on Wednesday.
It’s unclear how farming the land impacted development overall in southwest Fresno. But Arias noted the land the Assemis were allowed to farm is a huge part of southwest Fresno’s residentially-zoned space. Maps in southwest Fresno’s specific area plan, adopted in 2017, show Mission Ranch’s 330 acres — about two-thirds the size of Disneyland’s main district in Anaheim — amounted to more than 50% of the space zoned for “medium low density” housing within the area plan’s boundaries.
The Assemi family lost Mission Ranch during federal lawsuits against their farming corporations over defaulted loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A court-appointed receiver sold the 330-acre Mission Ranch earlier this month to an LLC created by Nader Malakan, CEO of Fresno’s Malakan Diamond Co.
It’s not yet clear what Malakan plans to do with the residentially-zoned farmland. He did not respond to The Bee’s request for comments Wednesday about the future of Mission Ranch. Darius Assemi did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment about why the property was never converted into housing.
Records filed in December in federal court show the Assemis’ farming companies and the plaintiff suing them, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, consented to the then-proposed sale of Mission Ranch.
The land — bounded roughly by Church, Whitesbridge, Marks and Hughes avenues in southwest Fresno — is part of the thousands of acres across the central San Joaquin Valley that will be sold as part of multiple breach of contract lawsuits filed by lenders against the Assemis’ farming operations.
At one time, the Assemi brothers, Farid, Farshid and Darius, were among the largest nut growers in the region. But court documents reveal their once-thriving companies, Maricopa Orchards and Touchstone Pistachio Company, began struggling after a failed expansion attempt and other factors. A state business record filed in 2024 lists the three brothers as managers or members of the Touchstone Pistachio Company, and a record filed in 2025 lists the three of them as managers or members of Maricopa Orchards.
More than $700 million in loans went unpaid, prompting several major lenders to take legal action to take control of the farming operation.
How Granville Homes got Fresno law changed to allow farming on residential land
Before Assemi family members purchased the 330-plus acres, the land was part of a previous failed development called Running Horse. That development, conceived in 2002, promised to bring a golf course and more than 1,000 new homes to Fresno’s west side — at the time already far behind other parts of the city in terms of growth.
Those plans died in the years that followed as Running Horse developers were accused of defrauding investors. The land drew interest from other developers, including now-President Donald Trump, but secured no takers. Assemi family members started buying the land and renamed it Mission Ranch in early 2013 through the C & A Farms LLC — whose managers are Farid and Farshid Assemi, according to state business records.
The Bee reported that year that Darius Assemi, the head of Granville Homes, began advocating for an amendment to Fresno’s land-use code that would allow large-scale farming on land legally designated for homes. The housing market was recovering from its bust during the Great Recession, and many developers wanted to farm residential land until the moment for housing construction arrived.
Darius Assemi said then that farming was an improvement because the land had deteriorated as an illegal dumping ground.
The proposal met resistance from community members and groups who said a commercial farming operation would only worsen pollution in what was already one of the most polluted ZIP codes in California. They wanted homes built, did not believe the orchards would be a temporary placeholder, and said they had heard similar assurances before, according to Bee coverage at the time.
But shortly before it came to a vote by the City Council in November 2013, a main critic of the proposal, Robert Mitchell of the Golden Westside Planning Committee, changed his mind, saying he believed the farming would be temporary. Oliver Baines, the southwest Fresno City Councilmember at the time, reportedly brokered a deal between the Assemis and area advocates that would reduce pollution from farming.
The City Council approved the Assemis’ request to allow the farming, and the family was then able to start planting orchards the next year.
Southwest Fresno added fewest homes 2012-2024. Other areas added thousands
A study presented to the City Council last year showed that the area “north of Shaw” added more than 3,000 multifamily homes and the area on the city’s far east added more than 4,000 single-family homes between 2012-2024. At the same time, southwest Fresno added no new subdivisions and only 40 new multifamily units in that time span, according to the study.
Arias, the area’s councilmember, previously told The Bee that southwest Fresno has historically lacked the infrastructure for large-scale housing construction because it was neglected by the city. The area has seen recent progress with new infrastructure and other large plans approved, but it is still working to catch up to other parts of town in terms of housing growth.
But Arias said the City Council’s 2013 decision to allow farming on Mission Ranch “simply delayed the development of middle-class housing options and homeownership opportunities in the area.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 1:55 PM.
