Did you see that they are going to revive Manchester Center? Yes, for reals! There will be a Chipotle and everything! You KNOW you are reviving when you get a Chipotle, Bro!
Manchester making a comeback? I bet you’re doubtful like me. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Well, one of the project’s managers has read your mind.
“Let me be clear. I’ve been asked a lot and I want to be clear about this,” said Benjamin Nazarian, Omninet’s managing partner. “This is not ‘if it will happen.’ This is happening.”
Super rad. Seriously. Whenever something gets a legit makeover, South of Shaw, it is to be celebrated and supported! I am excited this is happening.
So what about this Facebook comment teased in the title?
If you haven’t noticed, the comment section of local stories posted on Facebook (in this story’s case, The Fresno Bee) can get pretty negative and silly. My first thought after reading was “Oh man, there are going to be some shots taken at Manchester Center. Here we go.”
But this one didn’t quite turn out like I thought.
“Heather” posted this:
Ok well, a bit misguided about the bus stop, I think. But there is a decent point buried there that folks need to feel safe if they’re going to shop and eat at this new Manchester. But that wasn’t the interesting part of her comment.
A guy came up to her and asked her if she wanted to go “back in time with him?” My first question was “Did he say his name was Doc Brown? Maybe Calvin Klein?” [obviously a Back To The Future refrence].
The other would be Doctor Who. Somebody went right to it, bless their Internet hearts:
Heather is not getting the Doctor Who reference and it’s freaking adorbs:
HA! Maybe Heather doesn’t know Dr. Who. Understandable. But she would have to wise up to any Back To The Future references, right? It seems no:
“Oh Heather” indeed. Thank you for bringing nerd joy to this blog.
Back to the Manchester remodel: There is no word on if the new look center will have a TARDIS or will be hosting any Enchantment Under The Sea dances:
I’ll bet the mall owners would love to go back in time and take the whole place with them. Back to a time when Gottschalk’s and Liberty House and even the Upstart Crow were happening places. In fact, I wouldn’t mind traveling back there myself…
And, by the way, didn’t this whole Manchester Makeover thing get announced sometime last year? Oh, yeah, it did, in May 2015: http://abc30.com/business/fresnos-manchester-mall-gets-dramatic-renovation-in-youtube-video/721676/ So maybe they really did travel back in time!
You obviously didn’t pay attention, the leak images of 2015 are not even the current designed upgrades. It was the beginning stages of what the investors were working on, come on people let’s leave the pessimistic attitude and be happy things in fresno are changing.
But where will I get my Straight Outta Fresno and El Chapo T-shirts now?
its good that its finally happening. However, the success I feel will be what the mall will offer. They can make it look nice on the outside, but what is that saying—-“you can’t polish a turd because it will always be a turd” something like that. Not to sound like the many Fresno pessimists–because we all know there are many of them, but looking at the directory of stores currently in Manchester, unless they get well known retailers in that space, it will just be a nice looking mall on the outside with little shopping.. Here is the directory currently
http://www.manchester-center.com/directory.php?area=shopping
Does the city or investors really think they will bring people from affluent areas of fresno in the north or folks from clovis here to shop with those stores? people up north have their own nice theater in riverpark, clovis has a few notably sierra vista mall–another example of no really good shops that leads to being a pretty dead mall. also why go here when they can go to fashion fair with more familiar stores.
fashion fair imo is really the only true indoor mall experience in fresno/clovis. riverpark is a nice outdoor type obviously with less stores. sierra vista has potential, its clean outside, some updated sections, but inside is outdated with little known familiar stores. Manchester definitely has potential to be that other real indoor mall. if they can have similar stores as fashion fair, it should be successful. if the developers do it right, it should look very nice too because it is 2 stories in contrast to fashion fair. i always thought a 2 story indoor mall just seems more grand. i also hope these investors can get a retailer that fresno doesn’t have yet.
I attended the conference/ ground breaking ceremony, they not only talked about the remodel of the center but they mentioned a few retailers that are included in their renovated line up. Yes they have lots of mom and pops but local business mean a lot to the retail world and Fresno community. They are the foundation that later one build huge chains of national retailers. Yes that’s their outdated directory and yes their retailers need to get better, but those mom and pops fought everything and are surviving, I hope they are too willing to update and stay.
you are right. perhaps i was a bit too quick to pull the trigger to make it seem like everything should be all familiar stores and big names. hopefully they have a plan to have old mom and pop stores and current trend stores. it just provides a better demographic. i’m not going to pretend many of my neighbors and folks i know north of shaw dont try to avoid going anywhere near this area, but the truth is they do. there is no reason to. and why sprawl has happened and hurt the city. that is why i also feel the same for the fulton mall and downtown revitalization projects. there needs to be reason for the many in the afluent neighborhoods of north fresno and clovis to spend money in these areas. if not it won’t be successful imo.
what do you mean by “better demographic?”