{"id":378275,"date":"2026-06-28T14:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T14:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378275\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T14:19:13","slug":"new-courtyard-by-marriott-fresno-downtown-opening-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378275\/","title":{"rendered":"New Courtyard by Marriott Fresno Downtown opening soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inside Look is a Fresno Bee series<\/a> where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses, local landmarks and news stories.<\/p>\n

Downtown Fresno is getting its first grand hotel in decades. Axis Hotel Group is preparing to open the Courtyard by Marriott Fresno Downtown at the corner of M and Inyo streets by August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an elevated experience. This is a more upscale lodging facility than the surrounding properties, and any properties that have come to the downtown area in a very, very long time,\u201d said Axis vice president Nicholas Bains, giving The Bee a tour of the facility.<\/p>\n

The company invested $30 million to build a five-story hotel, with 144 rooms, including eight suites, a 4,000-square-foot banquet hall, and an outdoor, courtyard pool. The 95,000-square-foot hotel features 5,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotel will also feature a first-floor restaurant.<\/p>\n

The downtown property is nine years in the making. Axis purchased the land through an agreement with the city in 2017 \u2014 an empty lot at the corner of the convention center \u2014 for $644,688.<\/p>\n

After breaking ground in 2022 and several delays and redesigns, the hotel is nearly ready. Adjacent to \u2014 but not connected to \u2014 the convention center, workers are finishing off the lobby, ballrooms, guest rooms and pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfill was tough to work with. The underground PG&E lines were degraded somewhat, so we had to have a lot more work in developing this project than expected. That anticipation grew heavily, but the delays kept coming, and we\u2019re finally here,\u201d Bains said.<\/p>\n

Parking will be at the convention center garage, about a block away.<\/p>\n

The initial concept called for an eight-story hotel with 220 rooms and a larger banquet hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose plans weren\u2019t feasible with the costs going up, so we just scrapped that, redid the plans and downsized the hotel a bit to make it feasible,\u201d said Axis Hotel Group COO Taren Thandi.<\/p>\n

Thursday, the Fresno City Council granted Axis more time<\/a> to open by October, although hotel management says it will happen months sooner.<\/p>\n

City officials said this is the first downtown hotel of its type to open since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"The The courtyard pool is seen from a second-floor room at the new Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Fresno, under construction on M Street next to the Fresno Convention Center Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com City, visitors bureau excited<\/p>\n

Visit Fresno County, the regional convention and visitors bureau, says the new hotel \u201copens up the possibility of larger conventions being hosted in downtown Fresno,\u201d and fulfills the need for enough rooms for conventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this hotel downtown will allow us to encourage some of our current clients to expand their events,\u201d said Vanessa Puopolo, Visit Fresno County vice president. \u201cThose additional hotel rooms downtown, especially right next to the convention center, does change some of those conversations for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city estimates an annual increase of $900,000 in hotel tax revenue, in part because of the opening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s significant to have a new Marriott in our downtown. It will open us up to host additional conventions,\u201d Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White said.<\/p>\n

\"A A Fresno Area Express bus passes the new Courtyard by Marriott Downtown on M Street where exercise equipment is still under wraps Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com \"Construction Construction continues at the new Courtyard by Marriott Downtown, located next to the Fresno Convention Center on M Street Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com \"Nicholas Nicholas Bains, Regional Vice President of Axis Hotel Group, stands outside the new Courtyard by Marriot Downtown under construction next to the Fresno Convention Center on M Street Wednesday, June 24, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com \"A A restroom is installed at the new Courtyard by Marriott Downtown, located on M Street next to the Fresno Convention Center Wednesday, June 24, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

David Taub<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

David Taub joined the Fresno Bee in 2026 after reporting 10 years for digital publication GV Wire. He has worked in the Fresno market since 2007. Prior to moving to the Central Valley, he worked for TV and radio stations on the Central Coast. He has also worked behind the scenes in local TV and radio. During his career, he has covered City Hall, the state Capitol, the White House and several houses of government in between. When not in a reporting capacity, he works tracking stats for the Fresno Grizzlies as an official scorekeeper, and also with televised basketball and football games. He has worked the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and several MLB games. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Taub is a die-hard Giants and 49ers fan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with dual degrees in communications and political science. Go Blue!\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside Look is a Fresno Bee series where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-378275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}