Fresno will demolish former grocery store to make way for a senior center. What will it cost?

Engineers for the city of Fresno had estimated it would cost almost $775,000 to demolish the old Continental Market / Vons Supermarket building on North Blackstone Avenue and its accompanying parking lot to make way for a new senior citizens center.

On Thursday, the Fresno City Council will consider spending less than one-third of that amount as it votes on awarding a contract to Marco A. Gonzalez Engineering Inc. , also known as MAG Engineering, of Fresno. MAG Engineering submitted the lowest of nine bids received last month for the project, at $249,800.

The vacant 45,000-square-foot grocery store building on Blackstone north of Ashlan Avenue was built in 1960 as Continental Market. The building was later taken over by the Vons chain in 1993, operating until Vons closed in 2015. It was followed by the short-lived Asia Supermarket, which was open for less than a year before closing in 2016.

But city leaders say the 63-year-old building is not suitable for conversion into a multi-use senior center for various reasons, including the cost of retrofitting it to meet current Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards. “I’m told it be best to start from the ground up,” Mayor Jerry Dyer said when the city of Fresno purchased the building and an adjacent strip mall in 2022 for $6.4 million.

A new senior center is expected to cost about $25 million, Dyer said earlier this year. The city has been collecting input from senior citizens and residents about the kinds of services and activities they want to see offered at the center, which will be the first city-owned, large-scale center dedicated to senior programs.

Anticipated services include a senior hot meals program; health, fitness and wellness programs; transportation services; volunteer opportunities, and programs for education, art and technology. At about 30,000 square feet, the new center “may include features such as community education rooms, aquatic facilities, a commercial kitchen, multi-purpose spaces, and indoor and outdoor recreational and fitness facilities,” according to information from the city.

City leaders have laid out an “aggressive” timeline to have the new senior center open sometime in 2025.

But first, the old building has to go.

A July 14 notice inviting contractors to bid on the demolition spells out that the winning bidder must not only be responsible for tearing down the existing building, but also cutting and capping utilities such as gas, fire and sewer; demolishing the parking lot including removing the asphalt and concrete pavement; landscaping islands, curbs, gutters, walkways, loading docks and equipment slabs; and removing light poles, signs and metal railings.

Once the contract is awarded and the city gives a green light to start work, the contractor will have 60 days to complete the work, according to bid documents.

All but two of the bidders for the demolition contract were submitted by companies in the Fresno-Clovis area. The proposals ranged from MAG Engineering’s low bid of less than $250,000 to a high of almost $850,000 from Swinerton Builders, a Santa Clara company.

Longer-range plans also call for the development of affordable apartments for senior citizens on the site of the strip mall just south of the old grocery store.