Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer says a Starbucks featuring the company’s new community store concept is coming to southwest Fresno in 2024.

Dyer made the announcement Wednesday on social media.

Southwest Fresno, you’ve waited long enough. ☕️

I’m happy to announce that the first Starbucks in Southwest Fresno (and the first “Community Store” in all of Fresno) will open in 2024 at the corner of MLK Jr. Boulevard and Church Avenue! pic.twitter.com/Fg36Do39HD

— Mayor Jerry Dyer (@MayorJerryDyer) January 26, 2023

Conversation With Criner Inspired Effort to Land Starbucks

Dyer said Thursday that a conversation with Pastor DJ Criner made him think about “how much we take for granted some of the things in our neighborhoods. I drive by Starbucks every day in all parts of the city, but there’s not one in southwest Fresno.”

The mayor also provided a preview of the new concept that Starbucks will introduce at the location.

“It took some time,” Dyer said. “But I’m thankful to say today that they’ve committed not only to a Starbucks store in southwest Fresno, but the first community Starbucks in Fresno. … What does that mean? It’s a larger Starbucks. It’s designed so that people will come in and stay longer, more of a community feel, (and) they’ll hire people from the community. It has a community theme to it.”

The Starbucks is part of the West Creek Village master-planned community bordered by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Jensen, Church, and Walnut avenues.

The village often has been described as an economic “game-changer” for impoverished southwest Fresno and its overwhelmingly minority residents since being proposed.

West Creek Village is between Gaston Middle School and the Fresno City College satellite campus under construction at 600 E. Church Ave.

You can view a webcam showing how the community college construction is progressing at this link.

West Creek Village’s Transformational Potential

In 2019, then-Fresno Mayor Lee Brand said that the mixed-use village likely will be “the single biggest economic development in the city’s history for this side of town.”

Incentives provided by the city figure to shave about $6 million in development fees and infrastructure costs.

According to a description provided by Retail California CRE, the village is a 120-acre neighborhood in southwest Fresno comprising the 36-acre college campus, a 10-acre community park, a seven-acre elementary school, along with single- and multi-family housing, and a transit-oriented mixed-use town center.

“The town center is a lively mix of residential, retail, and restaurants and is proposed in two parts: One centered on a conventional, car-accessed grocery store and the other on a walkable main street,” said Retail California.

Among the proposed retail opportunities are an anchor grocery store, movie theater, home improvement center, banks, and restaurants. About 50,000 square feet of office space is planned.

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