Developer ‘being made’ to walk away from Fresno project amid lawsuit. ‘I can’t be selfish’
Terance Frazier wants the long-planned South Stadium project to keep moving forward.
For that to happen, the Fresno developer with an active civil rights lawsuit against the city over Granite Park is backing out.
“If I stay on the project, the project dies because (councilmembers) Garry (Bredefeld) and most likely Mike (Karbassi) are going to kill it,” Frazier said during a Friday interview. “So being a selfless person, I’m going to have to walk away.”
Developers of the four-story housing and commercial building proposed for a vacant corner of Fulton and Inyo streets in downtown Fresno received a 4-1 approval from the Fresno City Council on Aug. 18 for yet another extension to close escrow and secure financing for what is now a $32 million project.
However, four votes in this instance aren’t enough. According to a recent amendment to the city’s Municipal Code (section 4-204), a supermajority of five council votes is required to extend development agreements so they are of “clear and convincing” benefit to the public.
Here’s where the tricky, insular realm of Fresno politics crashes into real-world deadlines.
The current agreement between the city and Noyan Frazier Capital, L.P. expires Wednesday. And if it does, according to Frazier, between $7 million to $8 million in state grants will have to be returned, creating even more hurdles and delays for a desperately needed downtown housing project already six years in the making.
Question is, how will the developers get the required five council votes out of the seven members?
Councilmember Esmeralda Soria must recuse herself because she and Frazier are romantic partners. Bredefeld, whose vendetta against Frazier is well-chronicled and doesn’t bear repeating, has consistently voted against South Stadium extensions and allocations of city funds.
That leaves Karbassi, who was absent Aug. 18 and has his own quarrel with Soria and Frazier. Karbassi and Soria have filed dueling lawsuits stemming from their heated state Assembly campaign, during which Karbassi also took issue with Frazier over Granite Park. (Soria advanced to the November runoff. Karbassi did not.)
Karbassi voted “yes” to an extension request in November 2020, then switched his vote to “no” last August the next time the project came before the council. On Friday, the District 2 council member said via text he is reviewing the “latest rationale for an extension and will make a final determination when it is on-agenda.”
Special Fresno council meeting called
He won’t have to wait long. Fresno Council President Nelson Esparza confirmed a special meeting will be called for early in the week before the current extension expires Wednesday.
Except this time, the name “Terance Frazier” won’t be found anywhere in the agreement.
To help ensure Brefefeld and Karbassi will vote to approve the latest extension, Frazier told me his attorney is filing the necessary paperwork to remove himself from the limited partnership trying to develop the empty land next to Chukchansi Park.
“I can’t be selfish about this project,” Frazier said. “It’s not about Terance Frazier. I love my city and I’ll do everything I can to help Fresno keep moving in the right direction. Even if they keep harassing me.”
Frazier may love his city, but the relationship has also grown contentious over his operation of Granite Park. That saga has been covered elsewhere. Suffice to say Frazier is suing the city in federal court for allegedly defaming and discriminating against him by releasing a bogus audit of the sports complex’s finances.
Frazier, who developed the shopping center at Clinton and Weber and “more than 100” properties for the Fresno Housing Authority, said the constant “harassment” from Bredefeld and Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp over Granite Park has made it difficult for him to do business in Fresno.
“They’re pretty much cancel-culturing me,” Frazier said.
Frazier and Mehmet Noyan co-founded Noyan Frazier Capital for the purposes of developing the South Stadium project. Los Angeles-based developer Jeff Isenstadt has since joined up. Noyan and Isenstadt are the majority owners.
Project’s many revisions, delays
Noyan and Isenstadt appeared together at the last council meeting to present the latest designs of The Park, which would add 99 residential units and 4,500-square feet of retail space to downtown Fresno’s most bustling area. Frazier, perhaps prudently, was nowhere to be seen.
The South Stadium project has seen numerous delays and revisions since the council gave its initial thumb’s up in 2016. In recent months, the entire ground floor had to be redesigned to meet flood control standards for new buildings.
If built — and let’s keep things at an “if” — The Park would be the first new construction on that section of Fulton in several decades. Twenty of its 99 studios, one-bedroom apartments and two-story lofts are to be designated “affordable” with average monthly rents of $554 dollars, Noyan said during the Aug. 18 meeting.
“It’s the most difficult project because it’s the first one through the chute,” Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said.
With Frazier out of the picture, Bredefeld and Karbassi should have no reason to vote against another extension. Right? We’ll find out soon enough.
Frazier did what he felt was necessary, what he was forced to do, to keep the South Stadium project moving ahead. While sounding pretty upset about it.
“I’m being made to remove my name from my for-profit business for no reason — just to retaliate against my lawsuit,” he said. “This is a violation of my civil rights and an example of how Black people are denied generational wealth.”
Don’t look for a settlement anytime soon.
