Juan Gerardo Ruelas Jr. had been on a real estate hunt for the better part of three years when he stumbled on the perfect location for his family’s next project.
He’d seen hundreds of potential sites throughout the central San Joaquin Valley at that point. Dozens were almost (but not quite) viable. None of the proposed deals happened, including one that would have had them take over Selland Arena and Valdez Hall in downtown Fresno.
In the end, it was a nearly 50-year-old amusement park in central Fresno that did the trick…