Demise of Bitwise Industries puts a hurt on Fresno’s downtown, but it will recover | Opinion
As seemed inevitable, Bitwise Industries filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection last week, nearly a month to the day when its co-CEOs announced furloughs for the company’s 900 employees.
About 400 of those workers were spread among three big buildings in downtown Fresno. The rest were in offices elsewhere in California and across the nation.
Like many companies affected by the COVID pandemic, Bitwise’s Fresno employees had been working from home. Working out of the downtown locations had been ramping up, however, and the employees were just about to come together at the renovated State Center Warehouse on R Street.
Having such a large workforce concentrated downtown would have been a significant boost to the area’s fortunes, given the potential for workers to frequent shops and restaurants. Now that energy, and financial heft, is gone.
I asked Mayor Jerry Dyer to put the Bitwise closure into context. Was it the largest business failure he’d seen in Fresno in recent years?
“I cannot think of any business we have lost in Fresno in recent memory that would equate to that,” Dyer said. “Definitely any business that shut down in the sudden manner like they did.”
I asked the same question of Elliott Balch, the president of the Downtown Fresno Partnership. He characterized the Bitwise closure as “a speed bump on the road that continues to lead forward.”
Balch was formerly with the Central California Community Foundation, and prior to that was the city’s downtown revitalization manager.
While acknowledging the closure of Bitwise and its impact, Balch cited three reasons why he thinks downtown can sustain the loss:
▪ Balch said the company that owns the properties that Bitwise leased and had its enterprises located -- Summa Development Group -- has a good base of other tenants in the buildings who are continuing to operate, and he expects more tenants will be secured.
▪ The training programs that Bitwise was known for -- teaching people who did not have college or specialized degrees how to code and work in tech -- can be replicated by nonprofits and agencies that specialize in work-force training. “They are very interested in how to continue and expand some of these programs,” he said.
▪ A third reason Balch believes Fresno’s downtown will overcome the Bitwise loss is that tech start-ups want to be in the heart of cities. It is a pattern seen across America, he said.
Downtown is key
“Downtowns are where innovators are at home,” Balch said. “You are part of a community when you are downtown. We have the opportunity to bring folks together who have not been brought together that way.”
There is a fourth, significant reason.
Fresno’s downtown got a major boost last week when the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $250 million over the next three years to fix old, decaying water and sewer infrastructure.
Some pipes in downtown are a century old, and the cost of replacing those pose a major deterrent for private developers who might otherwise consider building there. With public funding, that obstacle gets removed.
Luring tech
Balch and Dyer both say getting more residents to live downtown is a key to renewed vitality. Their need for services and money to spend can support new businesses. The mayor’s target is 10,000 residents added to the neighborhoods.
Balch notes that things today are much improved over a decade ago.
Then, he remembers Art Hop nights -- when galleries were open on the same evening to visitors who made the rounds -- as drawing little foot traffic. “There was not a soul on Fulton Mall,” he said.
“Now galleries are open plus there are 5,000 to 10,000 people thronging Fulton Street, filling it with life, he said. “We can measure in data increases in visitorship. So the velocity forward is remarkable.”
Balch gets paid to make such assertions, of course. But there is no denying Fresno’s downtown has developed positives -- witness the creation of the brewery district. The collection of breweries and their tastings and special events draw crowds of young people.
Dyer said his economic development team is looking to sell tech firms on Fresno. The quicker that can happen, the better. Fresno desperately needs a more diversified economy, and tech must be a key component of that future.
