Fresno Mission has unique plans with City Center. See kids’ play area and homage to history
The Fresno Mission celebrated big steps along the way to opening its nine-acre City Center in 2023 with a sneak peek of its main building and a $500,000 donation on Wednesday.
The faith-based nonprofit, started as the Rescue Mission downtown in 1949, provides shelter, life recovery programs and food services to individuals and families facing life insecurities and homelessness.
The Mission was facing its own uncertainty when high-speed rail construction through downtown forced a move. The solution, announced a year ago, was to raise $30 million in private donations ($500,000 Wednesday from Bank of America) toward its City Center on Dakota Avenue just west of Highway 41.
Located at the site of the old Sierra Hospital, the City Center will have residential housing for approximately 72 families, office space for nonprofit service providers and partners, a coffee shop, grocery store, a youth center, a charter school, a church, and more. The site expects to house between 250-400 individuals at any given time and reach around 700-900 youth through its other services.
A tour Wednesday of the Heartbeat Hub Welcome Center showed construction far along. It also revealed some intriguing features including:
a replicated forest complete with a hollow log slide in a playroom for children;
a brick facade and a sign as a “homage” to the original mission, CEO Matthew Dildine said.
The City Center will be the first of its kind in California and on the forefront nationally to approach the homeless crisis with its unique model, according to the Mission.
