Fresno County Supervisors Approve Tentative Purchase of New Sheriff's Headquarters

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors approved a $25 million tentative purchase of two downtown office buildings to serve as the new home for the Sheriff's Office, voting 4-0 on April 7 after Supervisor Nathan Magsig recused himself under California's Levine Act due to a political donor conflict.

The two properties, at 650 O St. and 705 P St. near Tulare Street south of Inyo Street, are currently occupied by Pacific Gas and Electric. They are owned through two LLCs, 7355 N Palm Avenue LLC and Assemi Investments LLC, both co-owned by prominent Fresno developer Darius Assemi. Magsig cited the Levine Act, a state law requiring public officials to abstain from votes involving their political donors, as the basis for his recusal.

The purchase is not final. The county has entered a 90-day due diligence period to review the properties and existing lease agreements, meaning the sale could close as early as July. Sheriff Jon Zanoni said the sheriff's office faces an April 2027 deadline to vacate its current administration building at Courthouse Park, which is slated for demolition to make way for a new Fresno County Superior Court campus. That planned courthouse would span roughly 413,000 square feet with 36 courtrooms on more than two acres, though Sacramento officials have not finalized all aspects of the project.

Zanoni framed the timeline as tight. "I think we're going to be cutting it really close to that one year time frame," he said. "Once this sale goes through, we're gonna be full steam ahead on improvements for that building to make it work for use so we can move in." He also said the O and P Street buildings would allow the sheriff's office to consolidate departments that are currently spread across multiple locations, an operational benefit he said other candidate sites could not provide within the required timeline or without significant additional infrastructure investment.

The $25 million price drew scrutiny from at least one real estate professional. Veronica Stumpf, a local commercial real estate broker, told Fresnoland the price could be considered above average but "not automatically unreasonable," noting that commercial sales of comparable size are "pretty limited" in Fresno. The county has not publicly detailed the funding source for the acquisition or projected renovation costs to convert the PG&E offices for law enforcement use.

Board Chair Garry Bredefeld expressed support for the deal, saying he was looking forward to the purchase going through so that the sheriff's deputies and the board itself would have their needs met. The approval is tentative until due diligence concludes, at which point supervisors would take a final binding vote. No formal audit or public reporting mechanism for the purchase has been announced.

The O and P Street deal is the latest in a series of major facility moves reshaping downtown's civic footprint, following the opening of the West Annex Jail last December and the county's broader deliberations over a new headquarters building, which had separately budgeted $41.7 million for office space and $10.5 million for parking. Whether the sheriff's purchase draws from that allocation or a separate fund has not been disclosed by county officials.