The seven-story Bekins storage tower in Downtown Fresno could be getting a makeover both temporary and citrusy.

The Fresno Historic Preservation Commission has scheduled a public hearing Oct. 23 for an application to install a temporary promotional advertisement for Peelz citrus on the Bekins building, which stands tall for thousands of commuters daily just south of Highway 41.

The news was shared by Fresno history buff and downtown resident John Rupe on the “For the Love of Downtown Fresno” Facebook page.

 

The application was filed on behalf of Bekins building owner Brad Metzner.

Peelz are the brand of easy-peel, seedless Mandarins launched by Fowler Packing in 2020. Fowler Packing was one of the first growers in the area to plant mandarins in the mid 1990s, having a hand in the “Cuties” brand phenomenon and later “Halos” with The Wonderful Company’s Paramount Citrus.

Today the three brands are competitors growing a crop worth $664.6 million in Tulare and Fresno counties in 2020.

 

The advertising budgets for these citrus treats are also lucrative, and the Bekins installation wouldn’t be the first time mandarins have been advertised on a building. In 2017, a storage building at the Wonderful Halos plant in Delano was converted into the world’s largest box of Halo mandarins measuring 80 feet high and 11,000 square feet.

Without knowing much detail about the Peelz promotion, it’s likely to catch some eyes installed on the tallest building in the industrial district south of 41.

In fact, Joe Jacobsen, Bekins Moving & Storage manager, referred to it as the “largest billboard in Fresno” in a November 2022 story about the 101-year-old building’s availability for sale.