He learned downtown Fresno as a kid. Now this business leader is helping its rebirth | Opinion
Unlike his classmates at Edison High Computech that also bused to the magnet school from neighborhoods throughout Fresno, Elliott Balch was never daunted by downtown.
“More than my peers, I knew how to get around,” Balch recalled during a conversation in the Downtown Fresno Partnership’s Fulton Street office. “That was rare. Folks came from all over the city and really didn’t know their way around downtown. But I knew all the streets.”
Balch’s connection to downtown Fresno was born from parents who worked in city government, and has only deepened since. Years later, after earning degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago, he followed in mom and dad’s civic footsteps by serving as Fresno’s downtown revitalization manager under Mayor Ashley Swearengin.
Balch subsequently joined Swearengin at the Central Valley Community Foundation, Fresno’s largest philanthropic nonprofit, where he played a behind-the-scenes role in the success of Measure P and made a short-lived run for Fresno mayor in 2019.
Even though Balch never physically left downtown (the CVCF office is also on Fulton), its health and vibrancy is once again his primary concern. In March, the 42-year-old was named president and CEO of the Downtown Fresno Partnership, the business improvement district.
Considering what’s ahead for the city’s urban core, Balch’s hire couldn’t have been better timed. Downtown Fresno, buoyed by an unprecedented influx of state and federal dollars, is poised for radical transformation.
Yes, such statements have been uttered (and written) before. But never have they been backed by a $250 million gift, courtesy of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature, to replace downtown’s aging water, sewer and stormwater drainage systems, erect parking structures and provide street and multimodal transit improvements.
By pouring $250 million into infrastructure, the hope is to spur a billion-dollar residential building boom that serves to both revitalize downtown and alleviate the city’s affordable housing crunch. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer’s goal is to have 10,000 people living downtown, more than double the current number.
“To see development at the scale that we want, these infrastructure upgrades need to happen,” Balch said. “Every project in downtown Fresno will benefit economically from having those things taken care of. ... We’ve got all the elements we need to go big.”
More tax revenues downtown, and people
The last major investment in downtown Fresno — the 2017 reopening of Fulton Street — resulted in increased tax revenues and foot traffic from new businesses and special events. However, due in large part to the lack of housing, the project didn’t spur true revitalization as hoped.
As a requirement of the $16 million federal transportation grant, city officials tracked five years’ worth of sales tax data for both Fulton Street and Kings Canyon Road. According to Balch, the increase in tax revenues along Fulton doubled those along Kings Canyon during the survey period.
At the same time, there is excellent evidence suggesting downtown Fresno rebounded from the pandemic at a faster rate than downtowns of other North American cities. In a study conducted by the University of Toronto, researchers used cell phone data to determine that downtown Fresno experienced 21% more foot traffic between September and November in 2022 than during the same months in 2019.
The only downtowns in the study with a higher recovery rate than Fresno’s were Salt Lake City and Bakersfield.
Balch said a separate “demo” by a firm that provides customizable cell phone tracking data showed 1.5 million people (including 557,000 unique visitors) set foot upon Fulton Street between May 2022 and May 2023.
“I see more people, and I definitely see more people after hours,” Balch said. “If you go back 10 years during ArtHop nights there wasn’t a soul on Fulton Mall. Now there are thousands of people strolling about and taking things in.
“I can also look back 10 years ago trying to create promotions for people to come to Grizzlies games, and there were maybe one or two places open for them to have dinner or a drink beforehand. Now there are 24 places open before Thursday, Friday and Saturday games within walking distance.”
Goals include public restrooms, boutique hotel
The Downtown Fresno Partnership’s primary function is to promote and support downtown. That means hosting events, providing security to supplement police patrols and improving the physical environment via trash collections as well as signage and landscape improvements.
The partnership also works hand in hand with City Hall on certain initiatives including the Youth Ambassador Program, a hospitality and cleaning crew focused on downtown made up of 20 paid interns that is already making a positive impact since its April launch.
Balch’s list of immediate goals includes solving downtown’s public restroom dilemma (“It was topic No. 1 in meeting No. 1 when the PBID was first created. We’ve got to figure that out,” he said), providing day care service and luring a boutique hotel.
He would also like the partnership to play a larger role in “nurturing an enabling environment” for development. Not only for large-scale projects that encompass an entire building or city block, but also for fledgling entrepreneurs interested in opening a barber shop, juice bar or the like.
“The organization’s role has never been defined in that way exactly,” Balch said. “But I think we’re doing our jobs if we’re delivering the things that benefit all of our members.”
Downtown Fresno didn’t intimidate Balch as a high school student. Nothing has changed now that he’s a key cog in its rebirth.
