This historic Fresno building was remodeled. Get a peek at the businesses that moved there
Aerial acrobatics. Candle-making parties. Clothes shopping.
This newly-remodeled historic building in downtown Fresno has a lot going on inside. The 1918 Sun Stereo Warehouse building at 736 Fulton St. – across the street from Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co. in the heart of the Brewery District – is now home to a collection of new businesses.
The building was purchased four years ago and renovated by developer Reza Assemi and technology entrepreneur Jamin Brazil. Formerly home to a Ford showroom and offices, you can still see where the lift was that took cars up or down in the back of the building.
Today, the building is home to multiple retail spaces on the ground floor and offices (including a co-working space) on the second floor. They are filling up with creative and technology entrepreneurs.
The building will soon have a big pink neon “Sun Stereo Warehouse” sign, a nod to the stereo equipment business that once had offices and a warehouse there.
A mural by artist Josh Wigger and metal crow sculptures above the entrance by Brandon Greer are a reference to the flocks of crows that congregate downtown.
“We like to call it the entrepreneurial social hub of Fresno,” said Felice Diaz-Lopez. She has her Happie Day Studios specializing in newborn and children’s photography in the building and also acts as an informal property manager.
Places to eat and drink are coming: Palo Verde Bakery and the non-alcoholic Bone Dry Sober Bar are both planning to open locations on the first floor. (A planned tapas bar and restaurant by the owners of Quail State has pulled out of the building.)
Of the existing businesses, some aren’t open to the public, or are only by appointment.
But several are open. Keep reading to find out more about them.
If you’re curious to check out the building for yourself, perhaps the best time for the public is during monthly Warehouse Wednesdays.
From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the last Wednesday of each month (Aug. 31 is the next one), the building hosts additional vendors and most of the businesses are open for the public.
It does something similar during Art Hop, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. the first Thursday of each month.
There are too many businesses in the building to name them all. (There’s a huge range, including a woman who makes music on her computer, offices for the brewery across the street and an educational analytics company). But here’s a glance at some that cater to the public.
Candles and drinks
Joy’s Velitas is a candle bar. Owner Joy Alvarado hosts candle-making workshops here, usually with soothing low lighting, some Donna Summer or other music on the record player and elaborate drinks designed to make customers relax.
It’s also a store as she sells the candles she makes. They include ones in the shape of nude bodies (some of them in rainbow colors) and candles in concrete pots.
Velitas is Spanish for little candles, a nod to her heritage and a great grandfather who used to make beeswax candles.
The workshops are the heart of the business.
Groups of people, ranging from families to bachelorette parties, book sessions online. For $60 a person, Alvarado walks them through making a candle with hot wax, choosing and blending scents, and decorating it with stones or flower petals.
Included in the price is an “adaptogenic” drink. That’s a non-alcoholic drink made from botanical ingredients designed to reduce anxiety without the impairment of beer or a cocktail.
A lavender root beer, for example, is served in a mushroom-shaped glass and topped with local edible flowers.
“It just gives you an overall very relaxed experience you get to enjoy,” Alvarado said.
Details: www.joyalvarado.com.
Clothing store
Jasmine Mejia and Amanda Espindola realized they were buying an “excessive amount of clothing” and decided to turn their hobby into a business.
Now, they run House of Morii, a clothing boutique on the ground floor of the building. (Morii is the Italian word for the desire to capture a fleeting experience.)
The store has everything from basic T-shirts and sweaters to revealing night-on-the-town dresses and more. Most range from $28 to $85.
The women’s contemporary clothing is “fashion you would see in L.A. but not in Fresno,” said Mejia. “It’s not something you can go to Macy’s and find.”
The pair started the business about two years ago selling clothing via Instagram Live and pop-up events in downtown Fresno, including across the street at Tioga-Sequoia.
They were looking to open a store in Clovis, but “then we came across the building and we thought, this was perfect because this is where we grew as a business,” Mejia said.
Hours: House of Morii is open from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, from noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays. 559-222-3333.
Aerial acrobatics
Walk a bit further down the open hallway and you’ll see people twirling and dangling from various contraptions in mid air.
It’s Aerial Space Downtown Fresno, a studio that specializes in aerial arts, yoga and more.
“In the most general sense, they are fitness classes,” said instructor Brittany Kitchen.
It takes a huge amount of muscle strength – built with situps, pullups and other exercises – to pull one’s body around in the air.
The aerial arts and dance are performed on several different apparatus: a hoop, a sling/hammock, and two long aerial silks that students climb and wrap around their arms and legs in movements that are as much art as they are exercise.
“It’s dancing off the ground,” Kitchen said. “It definitely appeals to women a lot. You get to be really strong but still get to be feminine.”
Classes start at $15 and a $160 monthly membership with unlimited classes is also available.
Aerial Space also offers yoga in the public part of the building beneath the mural.
Details: www.aerialspacefresno.com.
Paper Crane Gallery
Upstairs, there’s the “crow’s nest,” a communal spot with blue velvet booths and a kitchen that can be used by the organizations that rent office space on the floor.
One of them is the Paper Crane Gallery.
It’s an artists’ collective – a combination gallery, a space for drawing classes with live models, and home base for a group that takes field trips to galleries in other cities.
They plan to showcase different artists in the gallery.
Owners Daniel DeMeza and Angel Lesnikowski said they want to create a safe environment that’s welcoming to artists, including those who are LGBTQ+, female, etc.
“It’s really important to us to have a safe space to show artists that the community doesn’t really get to see,” DeMeza said.
Details: Find them on Instagram at @papercranegallery.
Widow’s Walk Tattoo
Walking into Widow’s Walk Tattoo shop on the building’s ground floor is a bit like walking into a different era.
Sure, there’s tattoo art all over the walls, but there’s also antique curio cabinets topped with gargoyles and full of curiosities like animal skulls and coral. There are also vintage lamps, sculptures, and antlers.
The shop is owned by Jason and Laura Graham. He grew up here, and after about 15 years in Portland, Ore., came back to be closer to family.
“Instead of working at someone’s shop, let’s do this,” he said, of opening Widow’s Walk.
Details: You can see examples of their work and get a tattoo request form online at www.widowswalktattoo.com. 559-412-7011.
