High-Speed Rail Authority details $20M depot rehab, plaza and Chinatown mobility hub

Ben Lichty, principal transportation planner for the California High‑Speed Rail Authority, told the Fresno Historic Preservation Commission Monday that the authority has designed a rehabilitation of the 1889 Southern Pacific Depot centered on a seismic retrofit, accessibility upgrades and a downtown plaza with parking and a Chinatown mobility hub.

The project is funded in part by a February 2023 RAISE grant from the Federal Railroad Administration; Lichty said the authority received $20,000,000 for the depot rehabilitation. "We are sharing an update today," Lichty said. The authority expects design review and comment resolution by October, advertise and award contracts by the end of 2025, and to begin construction in early 2026, with an overall renovation timeframe of about two years.

According to the presentation, the work breaks into three main components: restoration of the Historic Depot (a retrofit to make the building fully occupiable), a new downtown plaza in front of the depot, and a Chinatown mobility hub on the G Street side. The design includes roughly 4,000–4,500 square feet of finished public space for the depot lobby and waiting room, about…