Why is one of north Fresno’s most visible office buildings conspicuously empty? | Opinion
Standing alongside northbound Highway 41 near the Friant Avenue exit and near the intersection of two major surface streets, it is one of north Fresno’s most visible office buildings.
Conspicuously empty, one might say. Despite a large display sign visible from Nees Avenue for Covered California, the state’s private health insurance marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act.
A reader (shout-out to Bill D.) brought the building to my attention, but it turns out many people are curious.
What’s the deal with that building? Why has it been vacant since its 2020 opening?
To answer those questions, I emailed Covered California executive director Jessica Altman and soon received a courteous reply from James Scullary, the communications and media relations chief.
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Scullary informed me of Covered California’s decade-long commitment to Fresno, beginning with the 2013 establishment of a service center at 7201 Palm Avenue that brought the city 300 new jobs.
To extend that commitment, Scullary said, the state agency in July 2019 entered into a 10-year lease for the three-story, 65,574-square foot building at 247 E. Nees Ave. surrounded by 350 surface parking spaces. (The Nees building replaced the Palm location after the lease on the latter site expired.)
“However, in response to the pandemic,” Scullary wrote, “and in the best interest of our workforce, we transitioned from in-person work to telework.”
An online records search indicates the property owner as Sugar Pine III LLC. In state filings, Dewayne Zinkin is listed as that firm’s agent/manager/officer/partner. Zinkin Development is one of Fresno’s largest commercial and office developers with a portfolio that includes Sugar Pine Square (home to Dave & Busters) and Park Crossing (home to Trader Joe’s and Annesso Pizzeria).
The property’s total assessed value is $16.8 million, $2.3 million for the land and $14.5 million for improvements, according to the Fresno County Assessor-Recorder.
Which tells us that’s a pretty expensive building to sit largely unused. The monthy rent is $190,692, according to Scullary. Which equates to $2.91 per square foot.
Although Bill D. and others who drive or bike past every day tell me they rarely, if ever, see any cars in the vast parking lot, Scullary indicates that isn’t the case.
“Right now, there are nearly 400 Covered California employees headquartered in the Fresno area,” he wrote. “We do have some staff on-site daily at the Nees Ave. location, and we continue to explore how to best utilize the facility — while supporting the talent, energy and commitment of our Fresno staff — in a future hybrid work environment.”
As someone whose own work environment was upended by the pandemic, I can relate. But as a taxpayer, I’m questioning why a state agency would continue to pay rent for 2 1/2 years on a building it hardly uses.
In a follow-up email, Scullary affirmed Covered California’s commitment to its Fresno-based employees and “prudent fiscal management.”
“With many of our Fresno team members teleworking,” he wrote, “we are exploring real estate options in Fresno that meet our operational needs and that will allow us to reduce our footprint.”
Meaning the conspicuously empty building could soon have new tenants.
Correction: The date Covered California started its lease was incorrectly reported in the original version of this column. It began in July 2019. The story has been corrected.
