TYCO General – BLOG

By Richard Deaver

Rowell Building - Fresno

Cities both large and small are reevaluating how they manage growth to not only preserve natural resources, but also keep their downtowns alive. Many have already been successful in bringing about change in the way they plan for inevitable growth and bringing residents and retail stores back to their downtowns and others are still in the planning or implementation stages.

Fresno has been looking at this problem for a number of years and has tried more than once to alter the way we continue to grow away from the urban core. As Fresno’s population increases, so does the need for affordable housing as developers continue to expand the city’s boundaries to keep up with demand – some say at the cost of valuable agricultural land. A recent Wall Street Journal article (August 15, 2009) provides information on a troubling trend that underscores this problem, which states; “Of new housing today, 80% is built in suburbs – the direct legacy of federal policy that favored outlying areas rather than the rehabilitation of city centers”.

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By Richard Deaver

If you’ve heard about The Fultonia project either through the local news media or by following this blog, you’re probably familiar with the term, “SoTow”, and may have wondered what it means and why it is so significant to the Tower District and to Central Fresno. Basically, the term SoTow, (South of Tower) was created to help establish a new identity for the Tower District neighborhood south of Olive Avenue.

The FULTONIA - Live/Work Village @ SOTOW rendering

The term was first conceived when I was contacted by property owner Terance Frazier with TFS Investments, LLC to look at The Fultonia; a 39-unit apartment complex with 10 commercial spaces in front that he had just purchased. As I walked through the complex I saw a unique opportunity to bring a once-proud property with great architectural bones and a neighborhood that was suffering from years of neglect back to life.

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