The State Center Warehouse, one of Fresno’s oldest standing buildings, will be turned into an office, retail and restaurant space for Bitwise Industries. Photo by Donald A. Promnitz

A historic building in downtown Fresno will be getting new life as a retail and office space for a Downtown Fresno technology and development company.

Located at 747 R St., the State Center Warehouse building will be renovated to create a retail, restaurant and commercial office space for Bitwise Industries. Educational spaces and conference rooms will also be added into the building.

Built more than 100 years ago, the State Center building previously functioned as a produce warehouse and cold storage area. An elevator on the side also allowed for parking on the roof of the building. However, the elevator structure will be knocked down for the project, with demolition taking place this morning.

According to Paul Quiring, president of the Quiring Corp., which is in charge of the project, the building has 72,000 square feet of office space (36,000 for each floor) above ground and 13,000 in the basement. Channelle Charest, leasing agent for Bitwise, said the project is estimated to cost between $10M and $15M.

 

 

“This is a really fun project,” said Jake Soberal, co-founder of Bitwise Industries. “Almost from the jump, we sort of fell in love with this building, with what was possible here.”

According to Soberal, completion for the project is expected by mid to late 2020.