An LA-based company has formally announced plans for the first phase of renovations at the Manchester Center Mall in central Fresno. The company is beginning a multi-year renovation of the struggling mall.
Manchester’s owner Omninet Capital held a ceremonial ground-breaking in the parking lot of the mall today complete with local elected officials and retail advocates.
Ben Nazarian, Omninet Managing Partner, says the first step is bringing in a Chipotle and Habit Burger into a new building in the mall’s west parking lot.
He says they also plan on converting now empty retail space in the former Gottschalk’s building into an indoor market and connecting the mall to the neighboring theater with an open air plaza.
“We already have numerous events here at Manchester to serve the community. We will continue doing those events but we need a better place to have them because we may have thousands of people at these events and doing them in the parking lot is not ideal,” Nazarian says.
In the long term, Nazarian says renovations will take years to complete but that the goal is to have the mall be a multi-use destination with office space, retail, and dining.
“Imagine coming and working at Caltrans. You can have a great dining option. You can catch a movie and go home. All without getting in your car. We think that is pretty exciting and the future of city planning,” Nazarian says.
Nazarian played up the mall’s connection a heavily traveled freeway and the future Bus Rapid Transit line as two other reasons to believe the center can be turned around.