Historic downtown Fresno building transformed into ‘entrepreneurial playground’

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Two local developers are breathing new life into an old, historic warehouse in downtown Fresno’s Brewery District.

The warehouse on Fulton Street was the Sun Stereo Warehouse in the 70s and hardware company in the early 1900s.

It is now newly renovated and will be home to dozens of creatives and small businesses in the Valley, like Bone Dry Sober Bar.

The bar’s owner, Ian Landis, is excited to be leasing the space for his pop-up brand.

“When you see this thing when it’s open, you won’t even know that it looks like any empty shell,” he says.

He calls it Central California’s first fully non-alcoholic bar, serving mocktails, non-alcoholic wine and beer, and kombucha on tap.

He says the location is an ‘entrepreneurial playground’.

“If you were given the perfect spot for your size business and you had so much free reign to customize and do everything you want exactly the way you want it, with a low price to rent and an excellent, excellent team of people to contact that can help you out with anything you need…” he says.

The building’s co-owner Jamin Brazil gave Action News a tour.

They kept the original brickwork and exposed wooden ceilings.

There’s a basement plus two floors.

Small retail shops are on the first floor, the second is modeled after tech center think tanks.

You can rent a desk, private booth, or an office for the day.

And there’s a large common area with a full-service kitchen where people can share ideas.

“Our hope is that we will continue to see entrepreneurs, people that are starting small-to-medium sized businesses invest in downtown, whether it’s here or other locations, and we believe that will have a huge impact, an exponential impact on the economy and the residents for this area,” says Brazil.

The building is already at more than 70% capacity.

That’s in part thanks to low cost rent – about 2 bucks per square foot.

Christian Honetschlager runs his No Life Fresno Podcast out of one of the office spaces.

He says this space not only accommodates his business needs, but gives him a chance to network.

“I’ve had conversations in the first two months that I would have never had without being in this building that are going to help drive my ideas and other people’s ideas forward.. So what better place to be, than in a cultural and entrepreneurial and artistic hub of Fresno.”

While they may have opened their doors in early May, the official ribbon-cutting will be mid-July.

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