FRESNO (KMJ) — As the historic Hotel Fresno lies vacant, a call has been made to make the most of its heritage and fill a Downtown void at the same time.
Craig Scharton, who headed up the Downtown Fresno Partnership before its current President and CEO, said that the current proposal to turn the building into housing is a bad idea.
“One of the things that we lack is a historic hotel. I travel all over and when I travel I stay at historic hotels in downtowns whenever I can because they’re beautiful and cool and there’s a lot of people who do that.
“There’s a whole association of historic hotels and we don’t have one. We’ve got to be one of the, if not the biggest, cities in the country that doesn’t have one.
“So that’s a missed opportunity if we just turn that into housing.”
In conversation with KMJ on Tuesday, Scharton added that the City of Fresno needs to make the most of the opportunity and help transform the landmark back into a working business.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
