The effort to bring Granite Park back to life is in full swing — and the developers of the project hope to be hosting ball games at the long-vacant facility later this fall.

---

“Construction is coming along and hopefully we’ll be open for business in four to eight weeks,” said TJ Cox, who together with Terrance Frazier is spearheading the redevelopment of the beleaguered Fresno sports complex just north of Highway 168 near Ashlan Avenue.
In September 2015, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, together with City Councilmembers Paul Caprioglio and Lee Brand, held a press conference at Granite Park to announce a deal had been struck to renovate the facility.
Caprioglio called the deal “a historic moment” for the city. “Granite Park is rising like a phoenix,” he said.
Local developers Frazier, a former professional baseball player, and Cox, who runs a community development organization, signed a 25-year lease agreement with the city to operate year-round sports leagues and athletic training programs at the 18-acre facility.
Granite Park, which once included miniature versions of Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and AT&T Park, was first developed 16 years ago, but has stood vacant in recent years after a series of proposed business ventures there all failed.
In 2010, the city took over maintenance of the playing fields and until cutting the September 2015 deal with Frazier and Cox, had been spending $104,000 a year just to keep the deteriorating facility from becoming a blighted weed patch.
In addition to renovating the mini ballparks and adding a fourth, regulation-sized ball field, the developers’ plans also call for the addition of volleyball courts and a new, two-story restaurant with sports bar and arcade overlooking the playing fields.
Frazier and Cox plan to open the public ball fields first in Phase One of their plan.
Cox said this week that he hopes to have Phase Two, which includes construction of the new restaurant, completed by the end of next year.
Phase Three includes the addition of an indoor gym and soccer arena. Cox said that part of the project should start to take shape “sometime in 2018.”
Frazier and Cox are making about $2.7 million in overall improvements to the facility, which will continue to be owned by the city.
Fresno-based Legacy Construction is acting as the general contractor on the project. In recent weeks, crews have been busy repairing ballpark infrastructure, repainting and putting in new athletic turf.
As part of their agreement with the developers, Swearengin said Fresno would contribute about $150,000 annually for the next decade towards the rehabbed facility’s operating expenses.
“Granite Park has always been a symbol of the city trying and failing,” Swearengin said at the 2015 press conference. “Today that changes.”
The mayor promised the revitalized facility “will bring benefits, not just to the city but to the entire region.”
Frazier, who helped lead Fresno State to multiple conference championships and went on to play for several years for the Oakland A’s organization, runs the Central Cal Baseball Academy.
Cox is president and chief operating officer of the Central Valley NMTC Fund, a community development entity that helps deploy federal tax-credit funds to low-income communities around the Central Valley.
For now, the facility is still known as Granite Park. But Cox said that will soon change as project organizers are in the process of creating advertising material to promote the renovated facility.
“As soon as we finish putting that together, we’ll be working with a local advertising firm and looking for a name sponsor,” Cox added.
Cox and Frazier also have the city’s permission to erect an electronic billboard facing Highway 168. “That will be a revenue generator too,” Cox said.