By the end of next month, the developers behind downtown Fresno’s newest hotel will have their project directly adjacent to the Fresno Convention Center completed.

However, the team at Axis Hotel Group isn’t waiting between jobs as its attention has already turned to other core parts of Fresno. Their next assignments include a hotel near First and Shaw avenues and an apartment complex near Barstow and Fresno avenues, said Taren Thandi, chief operating officer with the group.

While working on their hotel projects, Thandi said, in the background they’ve also been navigating decades-old zoning hurdles for what will be their first apartment complex.

“We’re a local company and we want to continue building in our backyard. If this is successful — the apartments on this lot — you’ll probably see a lot more of it coming from us,” Thandi said.

Hotel Opening Will Help Land Convention Center Acts

After the $29 million, 144-room Courtyard by Marriott at M and Inyo Streets is finished, the hope for downtown is that bigger acts and events will return to the convention center.

“They’re having to basically turn down bigger events because they don’t have enough guest rooms,” Thandi said. “So now, with this hotel coming in, Fresno and the downtown area can attract bigger groups, conventions, and acts.”

Miguel Arias, councilmember for downtown, said when the Radisson closed in 2022, many major acts stopped coming due to lack of rooms near the venue.

Developer Sevak Khatchadourian purchased the Radisson in 2023 and listed it for sale in October 2025, according to the Fresno Bee. A call to Khatchadourian was not immediately returned.

With the exterior largely finished, and power and internet in place, Thandi said once they get their approvals from the Fresno Fire Department, they can begin moving beds and furniture into the upper-floor rooms.

The pool will be completed in the next couple weeks. Bottom floor rooms are nearly completed.

Inside the Marriott, builders added 5,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space along with an outdoor patio area that can also be booked.

Thandi broke ground on the project in 2022 and got financing finalized in January 2023, he said.

Residence Inn on First Avenue Is Next

Not long after completing the downtown Fresno hotel, Thandi and his team will turn their attention to another property they’ve had for some time. Along First Avenue, just north of Shaw Avenue, construction will begin this year on a Residence Inn by Marriott.

This time, the group will handle construction on their own. Thandi said by keeping construction in-house, they can better meet the project’s timelines.

The Residence Inn will have 124 rooms as well as a bar and restaurant as requirements for the parcel call for a storefront.

City Zoning Error Complicates Multifamily Project

Just up the road, on Barstow Avenue east of the Highway 41 underpass, Thandi will soon begin work on the company’s first multifamily project.

That property, next door to the Avery Apartments, has its peculiarities, however.

When planners zoned that land in 2004, in the days of pen-and-paper zoning, they accidentally included the 3.3-acre site in the adjacent parcel’s designation, said Randeep Dhillon, president of development with Axis. That meant the team couldn’t go high density with the housing project.

“They basically put a restriction on our property where we couldn’t build over a certain amount of units per acre, which was a city mistake,” Dhillon said.

They hired a team to begin the work of rezoning, which added to the cost and time of the project, Dhillon said.

Thandi said the city has helped with the rezone process, and using recently enacted pro-housing state law, they were able to increase density at the site relatively easy.

On July 1, the Fresno Planning Commission approved the rezone request. The request will soon go before Fresno City Council, where Thandi expects it to be approved with few if any objections.

Success Will Mean More Apartment Projects: Thandi

Construction could take three to four years but the project is still in its very early stages, Thandi said. They expect to have between 100 and 150 units, but they haven’t decided whether they will add low-income units. However, he expects some units to have income restrictions.

The property’s previous zoning also had requirements for student housing, and while Thandi said he isn’t opposed to student housing, it would have to compete with the nearby Avery, as well as Fresno State’s newest 288-unit affordable student housing project at Shaw and Cedar avenues.

The university will cut the ribbon on that project Aug. 11, a Fresno State spokesperson said.

“Honestly, hotels and apartments are pretty similar for the most part,” Thandi said. “I know apartments are a lot more costly, but it’s worth it, they last a lot longer and it’s a safer play.

“If this is something that goes well for us, if we can get investors to come in and we can build this property, these apartments, and we have high occupancy, then honestly, that wouldn’t stop us from building more projects, more housing in Fresno.”