A new shopping center in northeast Fresno seeks to add a car wash, veterinary clinic, retail and a familiar restaurant to an up-and-coming neighborhood.

And a new apartment complex at the same corner will bring even more rooftops to the area.

Business owners as well as Darius Assemi, CEO of Granville Homes and Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld cut the ribbon on the 4.5-acre Copper River Marketplace by Granville Friday morning, where the latest Mad Duck restaurant will be located near Copper and Maple avenues.

Mad Duck Owner Alex Costa says he hopes to have the fourth location of the brewpub open between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024.

 

He says the new location will be much like the other locations at Herndon and Marks avenues and at Campus Pointe near Fresno State. Their first location at Herndon and Willow avenues is the smallest of the group.

This will be their first stand-alone location and Mad Duck will own the own space, giving them freedom with the architecture. They contracted with Antoyan Architecture on the design. Fresno-based Paden & Bletscher Construction, Inc. will be their general contractor.

The location will seat around 140 people. They will hire around 80 people.

Having the new location means they will also be able to move more of their employees into management positions, Costa said.

With hundreds of homes in the area and the distance from their other locations, Costa says they’ll be able to reach new clientele.

“You want to be embedded inside of a community,” Costa said. “We’re not the kind of restaurant that is the landmark where people will flock to it.”

There are a total of five parcels at the center accompanying the Copper River Ranch development, said Assemi. They’ve sold three and they will be retaining the other two. The first has the foundation laid and Assemi hopes it will be a veterinary clinic. He says they are close to finishing the deal.

Assemi said the goal was to make a walkable community. They are currently negotiating with coffee and tea shops as well as ice cream parlors. Residents have been asking for a small market with groceries, which Assemi said he would like to see sign a lease there.

Also coming to the center is a car wash. Owners Rajdeep and Nandeep Sandhu — brothers — are getting a conditional use permit to open a drive-thru car wash. They had originally planned for a gas station, but after hearing objections from neighbors, they switched gears. They hope to finish entitlements in the next six months. Rajdeep said construction would take another six months.

Behind the center, Granville Homes will be breaking ground on a new 120-luxury condominium complex. There is no name on the complex yet, but Assemi said they have been fully approved — a process that took two years and a half-dozen town hall meetings.

Assemi hopes to break ground on the condos in 2024.