It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the Downtown Fresno real estate scene — marked by building sales, tenant setbacks and new leases.

Fulton property sold

 

A 21,000 square-foot building on the newly reopened Fulton Street in Downtown Fresno has been sold to out-of-town investors.

The office/retail building at 1250-1252 Fulton St. was purchased by husband-and-wife team Mario and Jenna Gutierrez, reported Veronica Stumpf, broker with Stumpf and Co.

Stumpf said she gave the pair a tour of the area, and they also sat in on a workshop about investing in Downtown Fresno. She described them as “very enthusiastic investors” who see the vision for Fulton Street and want to be a part of it.

Stumpf said the Gutierrezes have plans to fix up the building and get it leased. It used to house the CASA of Fresno County and Madera Counties office and its 13 employees before it moved to Civic Center Square in November.

Parsley Garden hits rough patch

 

Across the street from the Fulton Street building that was purchased is Parsley Garden Café, which appears headed toward closure after nearly eight years in business.

Owner Juan Carlos Partida announced on Facebook that the eatery’s lease is up, and facing a rent increase, his family decided to run it until the end of February “to see if we can see a light.”

Partida noted that Parsley Garden Cafe survived nearly two years of construction to reopen Fulton Street, but business has not picked up — even to levels seen before construction began.

Parsley Garden Cafe is owned and operated by Partida and his wife Blanca, with help from son Alex Partida.

Fulton Village lofts in escrow

 

The Successor to the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Fresno Thursday approved a subordination agreement that would clear a sale by Granville Homes of its 46-unit Fulton Village building to an entity called Fulton Village LLC.

Before Gov. Jerry Brown dissolved the state’s Redevelopment Agencies (RDAs) in 2012, Fresno’s RDA made a loan of $800,000 and a grant of $500,000 for the construction of Fulton Village, which opened in 2011.

The subordination agreement would lower the agency’s security interest in the property to another loan — a $4.22 million note for the deed of trust to the building, one of several loft-style projects Granville has built in Downtown Fresno.

Marlene Murphy, executive director of the city’s RDA successor agency, told the agency board that the buyer would also include $3 million cash in the deal, for a purchase price north of $7 million.

In addition to the living units, Fulton Village has 4,500 square feet of commercial space.

A request for comment from Darius Assemi, president of Granville Homes, was not returned.

The Business Journal reported in 2016 that 291 units — 287,969 square feet — of Granville’s Downtown Fresno portfolio was put on the market for sale. This consisted of nine different properties built since 2011.

A search of online property listings revealed that one of the properties, Brio on Broadway, was no longer on the market.

A search of the California Secretary of State’s business entity records lists Michael Deutsch of San Diego as a manager of Fulton Village LLC. The address listed for Deutsch is for a San Diego business called All Right Storage.

Fresno FC rents space in old Bee building

 

The Fresno City Council on Thursday approved a 1-year lease with startup professional soccer team Fresno Football Club, who take the field at Chukchansi Park as the Foxes next month.

The team’s administrative and sales operations will be located on two floors of the Historic Bee Building at 1555 Van Ness Ave., which currently houses the television production studios of Community Media Access Collaborative.

Fresno FC will lease just shy of 10,000 square feet of the building.

The team will be renting the space for about 60 percent of the market value for downtown office space, but there’s talk that if the team has a good debut, Ray Beshoff and his ownership team may explore a purchase of the Bee Building, built in 1922.