Fresno Met sign coming down, CMAC sign going up on historic building

The changing of the guard in downtown Fresno was further signaled Tuesday as an iconic building got a facelift.

Community Media Access Collaborative took the Fresno Met sign down off its building on Van Ness Avenue at Calaveras Street. CMAC, which has been producing television programming in the building since spring 2012, plans to put up its own sign.

CMAC is a nonprofit that produces local government, education and public access channels in agreements with the cities of Fresno and Clovis.

The city of Fresno is the building landlord, inheriting it in 2009 after the Fresno Metropolitan Museum went out of business. The closure came after an ambitious renovation plan that created millions of dollars in cost overruns that forced The Met to get financial help from the city.

The building got its inception in 1922 when The Fresno Bee started there. It was The Bee’s home until 1975; in 1977, Bee owner McClatchy Newspapers donated the building for the Met Museum, which opened its doors in 1984 after a renovation.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

There’s other activity in the neighborhood: Granville Urban Development is building its newest residential project, The Lede, at Van Ness and Stanislaus; and ValleyPBS, across from CMAC on Van Ness, made room for more parking space by demolishing the old Eagles Lodge next door.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Fresno Met sign coming down, CMAC sign going up on historic building."