A crew begins demolition on a building at the south end of Fulton Street to make way for the South Stadium Project in 2018. Photo by Donald A. Promnitz

Demolition to make way for a new retail and housing project began today in Downtown Fresno.

The South Stadium Project, spearheaded by Mehmet Noyan of the Noyan Co. and TFS Investments CEO Terance Frazier, will span from the sidewalk of Fulton and Inyo streets to the Social Security building on Fulton Street. The building will cost approximately $18 million and will overlook Chukchansi Park.

Noyan stated that construction is scheduled to start this August and residents will be living in the building by November of next year. Marketing will begin in the middle of this year.

“We’ve had some interest. We’ve had some nationals, we’ve had some locals,” Noyan said. “I’m a believer—I’ve built shopping centers for the last 40 years—you kind of want to wait until you’re getting close to construction before you start committing the spaces because your mix could change.”

The first floor of the South Stadium will be dedicated to retail and the other three to residential living. Of the 54 projected units to be built (27 one-bedroom and 27 two-bedroom), 60 percent of them will have a stadium view.

“You’ve got to remember too, a lot of the Grizzlies…mostly are going to stay in these apartments,” Frazier said. “They would love to just stay right here and go to their work.”