The Noble Credit Union building in Downtown Fresno (formerly known as the Fresno County Federal Credit Union) is in escrow to be purchased for $2.4 million.

Paul Dictos, Fresno County’s assessor-recorder, has seen whole families come to his office to pick up a birth certificate to celebrate a new edition.

But given the shape of the current Hall of Records, and its 50-year-old elevator system, he said too many times mom, dad, grandma, grandpa and all the kids have had to trudge up a flight of stairs to his office.

And with no dedicated parking, families spend $25 for the certified copy of a birth certificate, and may come back to wherever they parked and find a ticket on their windshield.

 

“That’s adding insult to injury,” Dictos said in an interview.

But with the Fresno County Board of Supervisors’ decision today to enter escrow on a new facility for the assessor-recorder office, things should get a whole lot easier on the public.

Dictos said his office intends to purchase the current Noble Credit Union building on the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Merced Street in Downtown Fresno for $2.4 million. His office will also spend $800,000-$1 million to renovate the two-story building, which comes with a couple of parking lots with nearly 70 spaces.

He hopes to close escrow by December and have the building ready for the public by the end of 2018, or even sooner.

The money for the project will come from a trust fund that has about $15 million in it, which comes from $1 paid for every document the office records.

“This is a celebration for the taxpayer,” Dictos said.

Noble Credit Union — formerly known as Fresno County Federal Credit Union — has found a new home for its Downtown Fresno branch, said Keri Bennitt, vice president of marketing and membership. It will be located on the ground floor at 2440 Tulare St. in a Class A, four-story office building.

It will be located across the street from the Robert E. Coyle Federal Courthouse in a building that is part of the Civic Center Square group of offices.

Bennitt said the credit union, which was approached by Fresno County to sell its current branch, plans to open the new branch around the beginning of 2018.

Noble Credit Union currently has eight branches in the region.