-February 10,2020-
Launched as a small farmworker clinic in Porterville in 1976, non-profit Family HealthCare Network (FHCN) now has grown to serve nearly 300,000 residents in the Central Valley in three counties at 39 sites, just recently opening 5 new clinics in Fresno County.
Their corporate office is on Center Street in Visalia, the former Razzari Ford brick building. Now they have purchased the 16,000sf 2-story landmark building, formerly Picnic Sandwiches in Downtown Visalia. The clinical organization already has hundreds of employees in the Downtown area at four locations.
Family HealthCare purchased the Main Street complex at 114 E Main from Omni Development who last year bought the property from the Ransberger family, operators of the Picnic restaurant. This week Omni principal Luis Mota confirmed the sale to FHCN ”is a done deal.”
The building includes 2 floors of suites with office uses on the upstairs floor and former retail and food service space being vacated on the ground floor
Now FHCN -who has yet to respond to questions about their plans – is said to be looking at different options for the first floor where you walk in from Main Street. Considered possibilities are a bookstore and a healthy eating kitchen according to sources.
The building also houses Jon’s Optique who has served customers here for 37 years and will stay on now that the sale is complete.
Asked about the development, Visalia City Council member Steve Nelsen said “this is good news since it will bring more office users to Downtown at a time when the mix is changing “including less retail and more food service. It also will result in more use of Downtown’s second-story space.
Healthcare workers make up a good portion of office workers in the Downtown from FHCN, Kaweah Delta and other medical offices.They shop and eat in the Downtown everyday. Kaweah Delta alone has 8 campuses in the region with some 4400 employees.Their largest is the growing Downton multi-block campus. Other public entities like the City of Visalia are also big employers in the city’s core area.
Once renters, FHCN has now purchased their corporate headquarters on Center at Garden and is negotiating with city over possible purchase of the former Razzari parking lot on Main confirms Steve Nelsen.
The City and FHCN co-developed the old Oak Street rail yard at Santa Fe a few decades ago, each constructing new facilities at about the same time. This launched the city move east that resulted in the purchasing of land from the Union Pacific that has become the Civic Center area between Burke and Ben Maddox, still under development.