Business owners at Granite Park in central Fresno are calling on park operator Terance Frazier to comply with the parking lot rules per the lease the Central Valley Community Sports Foundation has with the City of Fresno.
Club One Casino President Kyle Kirkland held a press conference on Thursday to call on Frazier to communicate with the businesses and push back against comments Frazier made on social media on Wednesday.
Driving the news: Frazier posted on social media that he was going to hold a press conference at Granite Park on Thursday to “expose the hatred toward a certain group of people.” Frazier, who is Black, did not specify what group of people faces hatred.
- He said in another post that the city is trying to shut down Granite Park along with Club One Casino.
- Frazier posted a press release claiming the city and Club One Casino are collaborating to deny all parking options for the Sunkissed Festival on Saturday and future events.
- Replying to a comment on one of his posts, Frazier claimed Club One Casino is hiring security to block him from using the parking lot for the event Saturday.
- “I’m going to hire goons to enforce my lease agreement,” Frazier wrote. “It’s going to go down.”
- He also added in another comment that “the gloves are off.”
- The social media posts and comments were deleted by Thursday afternoon.
The big picture: While Frazier did not hold a press conference for the media on Thursday, Kirkland and other business owners in the Granite Park complex hosted one at Club One Casino that ended up being attended by several park and community advocates, turning the event into a lengthy affair that ultimately resulted in extended dialogue between Kirkland and others who have supported Frazier.
- Kirkland pushed back on Frazier’s social media claims, calling them defamatory.
- According to Kirkland, the Central Valley Community Sports Foundation has repeatedly failed to meet its obligations under the lease with the city and the businesses, which privately own the parking lots in question.
The backstory: Trouble surrounding the parking lots came to a head in March when an elderly woman was attending an event at the park sponsored by Big Bounce America, which brought the world’s largest bounce house to Fresno.
- The woman was violently assaulted in the parking lot and had to spend a week in the hospital.
- Club One Casino, Frazier and the city met over Zoom in May, and according to Kirkland, Frazier blamed Club One guests for the assault. Kirkland said Thursday that video surveillance footage and confessions from the perpetrators confirmed they were attending the bounce house event.
- Kirkland said the event did not provide security in the parking lot.
State of play: The city issued a notice of default in May to the Central Valley Community Sports Foundation over the lease for non-payment and other breaches. The foundation owed over $1 million to the city at the time.
- On June 3, Club One Casino affiliate GPP II, LLC, issued a notice of default and intent to terminate the declaration of license which governs the foundation’s use of the privately-owned parking lots for multiple breaches of the agreement, as well as complaints regarding the foundation’s unsafe and unauthorized use of the parking lots.
- The foundation did not respond to the notice and did not make an effort to talk to Club One Casino, according to Kirkland, scheduling soccer camp, EID Carnival last week, a 4th of July fireworks event and the SunKissed event this weekend.
- Kirkland said Frazier has not sought permission for events at the park fields to use the private business parking and that Club One Casino has been put in the position to enforce all private parking lots after it moved to the location from downtown Fresno in September 2021.
What they’re saying: Kirkland said the crux of the issue is that Frazier has failed to communicate about the events held at the park, leaving him to find out about events through social media and not leaving enough time to agree to a plan for the parking lots.
- “I personally have reached out multiple times. I personally have written emails. I personally put up and said here’s what we need to do. And oh by the way, if we don’t know about any of this and we can’t get the approvals in time, it’s problematic,” Kirkland said. “Please work with us. We believe that we can accommodate everybody. I’ve told it to the city. I’ve told it to Terance. I’ve told it to the Community Sports Foundation. I show up at the different meetings, so this isn’t about us not trying to get along. “This is about, hey listen, communication is a two-way street, and if you’re not answering and you’re basically saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have to respond to you. I’m just going to do what I want,’ that doesn’t work, and that wouldn’t work for anyone in this room.”
- Attorney Phillip Flanigan owns a law office in the complex and said his parking lot, which is privately owned, is constantly taken over on weekends by people using the park so that he can’t even park in front of his own building.
- “I frequently have to pick up trash afterwards, and it’s irritating as heck,” Flanigan said. “And I have talked to Terance over and over and over again, again today about just give us a heads up. Block off three places so I can at least get to my office. After an event make sure your people come through and pick up the trash.”
- Flanigan said he loves the events at the park – outside of softball for repeatedly damaging his building – and that all anyone is asking for is communication.
- Kirkland echoed Flanigan, saying all of the business owners want to see Granite Park succeed with its numerous events and the businesses to thrive.
- “We want other people to come here. We don’t want people to be like, ‘I don’t want to go south of Shaw.’ I look at our proximity to the airport. I see where we are. I want to improve this neighborhood and the area. It’s really important to me,” Kirkland said. “We’ve got a big investment here, and I’m committed to the community. We want to see this work, but it absolutely is predicated on a mutual level of respect for our different rights and agreements that we have in place in what we’re doing. And it cannot just be, ‘Hey listen, try to figure it out from social media.'”
