The Fresno Housing Downtown Fresno office is seen to the left of this image, with the Downtown CVS property right across the street. Photo by Ben Hensley

The former Downtown Fresno CVS building located at 1302 Fulton St., which was acquired by Fresno Housing in March for $2.8 million, recently made its way onto the organization’s agenda, revealing the beginnings of a plan currently awaiting grant approval.

The “North Fulton Development” appeared for the first time on the April 25 agenda, and in May’s meeting minutes is listed under pre-development pending an IIG-C (Infill Infrastructure Grant Catalytic Qualifying Infill Area) application.

The most recent grant awards from the IIG-C program in June 2022 range form just under $600,000 to nearly $29 million.

The state-funded grant, which was applied for by the City, will help fund much-needed infrastructure improvements to the area, according to Fresno Housing Deputy Executive Director Tammy Townsend.

Fresno Housing is also awaiting the release of the state budget, in which Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed $250 million for revitalization in Downtown Fresno, citing the quick recovery the region saw following the pandemic along with the need to improve infrastructure in the area.

“The governor’s proposed budget, that he released during the May revise, did have infrastructure money for Downtown Fresno built into that,” Townsend said. “But we’re not going to know until the end of June what the result of that is.”

As a result, Fresno Housing will not be able to set anything in stone until after the grant and state budget are reviewed and approved, which, according to Townsend, will likely be within the next several months.

“Mr. [Tyrone] Williams [CEO, Fresno Housing] talks about it being like a thousand-piece puzzle and all the pieces have to come together,” she said. “Obviously that kind of money would really help with some of the big infrastructure costs.”

The 22,350-square-foot building and its parking lot, which have sat vacant since the CVS shuttered its doors last September, sits on 1.73 acres currently zoned for mixed-use.

In 2016 Fresno Housing conducted pre-planning in the surrounding area which included parts of the recently acquired property, but Townsend said they will revise these plans.

“It was very conceptual,” she said. “We’re going back to the well a little bit to think about that differently.”

Townsend said that Fresno Housing is pleased with the development of the Monarch Development in Chinatown, and believes the organization may build off of the momentum of that development.

Along with the Monarch and North Fulton Developments, several other projects in the pre-development phase appeared on the agenda without additional information, including projects in Firebaugh and a project at an unspecified location in Southwest Fresno.