Downtown Fresno’s old Radisson hotel building is up for sale again, this time with millions added to the price tag it carried less than one year ago.
An Aug. 21 listing on the commercial real estate site Loopnet shows the building’s ownership group now wants $19.5 million for the nine-story, 197-room structure on Van Ness Avenue that shuttered in December 2022.
That’s more than double the price that the group, previously reported to include Fresno real estate investor Sevak Khatchadourian, bought it for in March 2023. It’s also 31% higher than the $14.9 million that the group wanted for the building when it was listed on Loopnet last fall.
The sale attempts have been criticized over the past year by downtown City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who previously said the owners are treating the building “as a potential flip, which is the exact opposite of what downtown Fresno needs.”
“My suspicion from months ago has been validated,” Arias told The Bee on Tuesday.
Khatchadourian and Benjamin Dreicer, the broker trying to sell the building, did not return calls from The Bee requesting an interview about the new listing.
The owners have mostly kept quiet about their plans for the building since buying it, when Khatchadourian told The Bee they had not yet decided whether they would reopen it as a hotel, office space or something else.
Last year, he told The Bee he could not comment about plans for the building because of confidentiality agreements. The investor-developer, whose business is based in Los Angeles, also owns downtown Fresno’s Pacific Southwest and Helm buildings, and the vacant University Medical Center property on Kings Canyon Road and Cedar Avenue.
The Radisson Hotel building, center, on Van Ness in downtown Fresno is again listed for sale. It was listed last fall with a price of $14.9 million, then it was taken off the market. On Aug. 21 it was listed for sale again, this time for $19.5 million. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com ‘Ready to execute’ plan for downtown Fresno building
The Radisson hotel building was built in 1960 and was previously a Hilton hotel and after that a Holiday Inn. It became a Radisson hotel in 2014 but closed in December 2022 because of fire code violations.
Khatchadourian’s group bought it the following March for an estimated $9.27 million. Similarly to last fall, the building is being advertised as a “dual-path” opportunity, meaning it could be redeveloped into an apartment project or reopened as a hotel.
But this time, the online listing suggests a path toward opening the building is already in place. The building is being sold with a completed “professional hotel renovation design package” and with bidders for fixtures, furniture and equipment already secured.
The listing says the building now has roofing, waterproofing and fire safety improvements.
The Radisson Hotel building, center, on Van Ness in downtown Fresno is again listed for sale. It was listed last fall with a price of $14.9 million, then it was taken off the market. On Aug. 21 it was listed for sale again, this time for $19.5 million. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Will downtown Fresno building sell for $19.5M?
The new sale attempt comes after a year of apparent development progress in downtown Fresno, where a 174-unit apartment project has broken ground next to Chukchansi Park after stalling for more than a decade. The city is also hoping Fresno development company Lance Kashian & Company will break ground on its own slow-moving downtown apartment project just a few blocks from the Radisson structure.
The hotel building’s online listing suggests its owners would like to capitalize on the investment efforts in the area as they attempt to sell for $19.5 million.
Arias said Tuesday that he still doesn’t “see a marketplace for that price point.”
“Unless they’re trying to advertise to foreigners who are required to buy in to get a visa,” Arias added, referring to federal programs for investors from other countries.
The councilman previously said he supported the building’s current owners when they bought it in 2023 because he thought they would reopen it as a hotel themselves. Today, Arias still thinks it’s best for downtown Fresno for the building to be reopened as the area’s third major hotel so nearby entertainment venues can book more events.
Last year, Mayor Jerry Dyer told The Bee he would support an apartment conversion for the building if it resulted in a mixed-use project “with a heavy emphasis on market-rate.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2026 at 12:53 PM.
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Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert.