Central California couple will help create a real estate center
Dr. Arnold and Diane Gazarian invest $1.5 million in Fresno State and the new California
by Paul Chaderjian
ARMENIAN REPORTER
FRESNO, CA - Though Native Americans lived here as far back as 6,000
years before Christ, this story begins in the mid-1800s, when a
railroad baron established a depot here - setting modern day
development into motion.
Spanish explorers had deemed the empty, arid desert uninhabitable, and
passed through it, as did the Gold Rush-era '49ers. But when a
labyrinth of irrigation canals was built on this mostly-flat terrain,
the region's Mediterranean climate allowed waves of immigrants to turn
the southern San Joaquin Valley into the most agriculturally bountiful
area in the world.
Now this region, dubbed by the media as the “New California,” is home
to a booming population of more than three million people. It is the
raisin capital of the world, produces more than 250 crops, and
provides a quarter of the food eaten in the U.S. The Southern San
Joaquin Valley's agricultural business brings in more than $16 billion
in revenues every year.
In this booming region, once an empty desert, a retired dentist and
his wife, the children of hard-working immigrants, are helping the
local university to address regional challenges and to maintain its
role as the intellectual and educational center for the Central San
Joaquin Valley.
With a gift of one-and-a-half million dollars, Dr. Arnold and Diane
Gazarian are establishing a real estate center at California State
University, Fresno, and helping to launch the biggest fundraising
effort in the university's 100-year history.
“We've been blessed,” says Dr. Gazarian when we meet for coffee at his
daughter's business, Uncle Harry's New York Bagelry, in North Fresno.
“We've really been blessed, and we're fortunate enough to be able to
do it. I think it's going to be very good for the valley. I think it's
going to help with the education of a lot of people who are interested
in this field.”
“The Gazarian gift sets the stage for Fresno State and the Craig
School of Business to become the central player in real estate
research in the Central Valley,” says Dr. Douglas Hensler, chair of
the Dean and Sid Craig School of Business at CSUF.
The Gazarians and university officials envision creating a think-tank
in the next three years that can execute fact-based planning for
growth, a place where academics can pursue specialized degrees,
conduct massive research projects, hold symposia, and come together
with community and business leaders and the public to jointly address
not just growth but also the economic, social, and environmental
concerns of the region.
“We talked about the donation with the Dean of the School of Business
for a number of months,” says Dr. Gazarian, “and the decision was to
make the investment in the university. I think that's what it is. It's
an investment in the Valley's future, the university's future...and
hopefully an investment in humankind.”
The Gazarians' generosity and “investment in humankind” began several
decades ago. The couple has been behind some major education
initiatives, and has served on the Fresno State Foundation Board of
Governors for more than 10 years. Dianne Gazarian (nee Berberian)
directs the Berberian and Gazarian Family Foundation, and the couple
established the Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair in Armenian
Studies at Fresno State nearly two decades ago.
“Diane and Arnold have been the most impressive consistent supporters
of the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State, since they enabled
the establishment of the first full-time and functioning endowed chair
in any discipline on our campus,” says Dr. Dickran Kouymjian,
professor, director and coordinator of the Center for Armenian Studies
at CSUF.
Dr. Kouymjian, who holds the Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair,
says the Gazarians established the chair in honor of Diane's mother
and father. “But their contribution only began with the donation,”
says Dr. Kouymjian. “For the past 20 years they have been unfailing in
their support.”
Dr. Gazarian served as the president of the Armenian Studies Program
Advisory Board for many years, and Dr. Kouymjian says Arnold and Diane
have been generous with their advice and help on nearly every
important issue.
“They have also never refused to organized receptions and other events
in their gracious home,” says Dr. Kouymjian. “They have asked for
nothing in return, and both of them and their children never seek
publicity or other distinctions. They are hard-working, elegant
people, with a permanent concern for the Armenian Studies Program,
Fresno State, and their city, Fresno.”
* Unpaved streets and sidewalks
When 76-year-old Arnold Gazarian was a teenager, he walked a mile to
school and helped out his parents on the family's raisin farm near
Fowler, CA. He says he remembers things very vividly, especially his
dream to grow up and become a dentist.
“An uncle in Fresno was a dentist,” recalls Gazarian. “What I liked
about that is that the dental office was always clean. He was never
perspiring or dirty working under the vines. I thought, this is a
great life, and I want to be working with my hands, and this is what I
want to be.”
Life on the farm was difficult, says Gazarian. “Mom and dad worked the
ranch, as raisin growers. There were no sidewalks out on the ranch, no
asphalt driveway. When it rained, it would be muddy. Hot water and
heat and cooking was done all on a wood stove, whether it was the
middle of summer or dead of winter.”
Groceries were purchased on credit until the crop came in and his
parents were able to pay their bills. “I guess what we would do is
once a week, we would go to an Armenian store in Fresno to do our
shopping. After the crop would come in, mom and dad would go and pay
off the bill, or TRY to pay off the bill - almost all of it.”
“After World War II was over,” remembers Gazarian, “we got at that
time a butane stove and a butane heater at the house. And a butane
water heater. We'd made our weekly trip to Fresno, and we came home on
a cold winter afternoon and it had been installed. And all I did was
open the hot water tap - and voila, there was hot water!”
He laughs. “It was like downtown,” he says. “I must have been about
13. It is something that I will never ever forget.”
After high school, Gazarian attended Reedley Community College,
enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley for a year, then
transferred across the Bay to UC San Francisco's School of Dentistry.
He began his dentistry practice in 1956 and retired after 33 years,
when the family's farming, real estate, and development businesses
began demanding more of his attention.
“Since I was six or seven years old,” he says, “that's all I wanted to
be, a dentist. Little did I realize that the profession I was going in
wasn't the cleanest in the world. The mouth has more bacteria than any
place else in the body.”
But though it wasn't exactly the clean job he had envisioned,
dentistry ended up being a very rewarding profession, says Gazarian.
“My patients were the light of my life,” he says. “I'd wake up in the
morning, and I couldn't wait to get to work, because I enjoyed it. It
was a great profession, in that I was usually done by five o'clock,
and Dianne could have dinner on the table at six o'clock to eat with
the kids, and we always did. Six, 6:15, every day, dinner was on the
table, and we sat around as a family and had dinner.”
The Gazarians, whose parents came from Kars and Kharpert via
Massachusetts, raised four daughters, and now have five grandkids.
“This is my third daughter that owns this place,” he says, referring
to the Bagelry. “She and her husband put together Uncle Harry's and
now Betty's Sandwiches, named after my mother-in-law. My father-in-law
was known as Harry back East, and my mother-in-law always used to call
him Harry. My mother-in-law's name was Isabelle, but everybody called
her Betty.”
When the Berberian and Gazarian family business began demanding more
of his attention, Dr. Gazarian had less and less time to practice
dentistry. “We farmed about a couple of thousand of acres between here
and Modesto,” he says. “Our major crop was almonds. We also farmed
cling peaches, cherries, citrus, grapes and, table grapes.”
When his father-in-law passed away, Gazarian found himself spending
more time in the property management and development businesses.
“Every time someone would call, I literally had my hands in someone's
mouth. So, it got to the point that I had to move on. It was time to
close chapter in the book and open up another chapter.”
* Community service
Dr. Gazarian emphasizes that he and his wife have been very fortunate,
and their latest gift to Fresno State is just another way of giving
back to the community. “The good Lord has been good to us,” he says,
“and we are giving back to the community that has allowed us to do
what little we've been able to do.”
For the past 50 years, Gazarian has been giving back as a member of
the Exchange Club community service organization. “I've been through
the chairs. Everything from president to secretary,” he says, “and I'm
kind of now a knife-and-forker.” Gazarian never missed a weekly
meeting during his career in dentistry. He says he had a lot of fun
doing good work for the community, like helping abused children.
“That's our major project,” he says.
Along with helping victims of abuse and trying to stop child abuse,
the Exchange Club reaches out to underprivileged children with help,
honors members of the law enforcement community, provides scholarships
and honors to high school students, and even has its members ring
bells for the Salvation Army every holiday season.
Gazarian says he and his wife owe their success in life to public
schools and colleges, and he attributes their education to the
education system funded by the public. “These institutions didn't just
happen,” he says. “And people don't do things by just themselves.”
The retired dentist says he could not turn down an invitation from
Fresno State President Dr. John D. Welty 10 years ago to serve on the
Fresno State Foundation Board. “Diane and I discussed it, and we said,
you know, it's something we're interested in - so why not? You cannot
help but get interested in what Fresno State is doing, and in
education.”
With the Gazarians' input, Fresno State strengthened its development
department and created development directors for each of the schools
at the university. “A few years ago,” says Dr. Gazarian, “we decided
to move ahead with a comprehensive campaign for the university, and
the reason for that is the state of California today.
Dr. Gazarian says state funding of public universities covers only
about three-quarters of the costs, compared to a decade ago when
California covered about 95 percent of the budget. “State funding is
beginning to diminish,” says Dr. Gazarian, “and without private
support, the university is not going to flourish.”
* The new California
Fresno State's largest fundraising effort touts the Central San
Joaquin Valley as the “New California,” citing similar references to
the region by the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, National Public Radio, and
the Public Policy Institute of California. TIME Magazine called the
region “the last Real California” and said that Fresno was “the last
Real California left.”
The city and county of Fresno are named after the ash trees that are
said to have lined the nearby San Joaquin River, which flowed out of
the icy Sierras. That river, which at one time was so large that
steamboats ferried people up to Stockton and Sacramento, is now dammed
in a dozen places in the mountains and nearly dry on the valley floor.
But the farmland that the canals were built to water is now being
turned into miles and miles of new neighborhoods. Escalating real
estate prices in other parts of the state are driving more and more
people to Central California from the Bay Area and Southern
California. Volumes have been written about the loss of the family
farms, and how that loss is resulting in the loss of a distinctive
American culture and family values.
Challenging development and redevelopment concerns have been
sensational cases like “Operation Rezone.” The FBI investigation,
broken in the media by L.A. TIMES journalist Mark Arax, resulted in
the conviction of more than a dozen, including Fresno and Clovis city
council members. They were accused and convicted of accepting bribes
from developers to rezone parcels of land.
Cheap housing and unchecked, sometimes illegal, development have
created a shift in population in California. NPR called this
agriculturally bountiful region the final destination for a “reverse
migration” from the coast into the Central Valley.
“In the next 40 years,” NPR reported, “experts foresee a California
with 24 million more residents, populating cities where now they see
only farmland and foothills. California is not an idea moving west,
but an idea moving east.”
“Driven by demographic, cultural and political shifts,” wrote the
CHRONICLE, “a rift is growing between California's coast and its
interior, replacing the north-south split that has defined state
politics for more than 150 years.”
Fresno State says the Public Policy Institute of California see the
Central Valley's population increasing at a rapid pace, surpassing
every other major region of the state. “Over the years, this trend
will dramatically alter the state's social and political landscape,”
says the Institute. “For the first time since the Gold Rush, more than
half of Californians live outside the Bay Area and Los Angeles.”
Fresno State fundraisers say that this “New California” covers an area
larger than 11 states, measures up to the geographic size of
Tennessee, has three million residents, and that “in the midst of
growth is the region's intellectual, academic and sports entertainment
leader, the University of the New California, Fresno State.
“We are in a growing part of California,” says Dr. Gazarian. “We are
probably the only growing part of California. The major growing force
within California is here in the Central Valley, so it is important
for the university to thrive.”
Gazarian says the “New California” campaign at Fresno State is still
in its quiet stages. “As it began rolling along,” he says, “Diane and
I decided, you know, we need to do something for the university.”
Their interest in education, coupled with their growing involvement
with real estate professionals and bigger investments in real estate,
helped them formulate their interest in establishing an academic
environment for the study and application of real estate.
“In real estate, when someone makes an investment,” says Gazarian,
“it's generally the biggest investment they'll make. And ethics are
very important, whether it's in the lending business or the mortgage
business. It all falls under the umbrella of real estate.”
Gazarian says all one has to do is look at the newspaper headlines to
see how people are being cheated out of their life savings. “I'm
talking about ethics in general. I just think ethics is really
important. I don't care what the business is. I don't care if it's
law, medicine, digging ditches, dentistry, plumbing or carpeting;
ethics is real important.”
Dr. Gazarian's vision for the Real Estate Center is to address issues
like ethics as well as real estate planning, sales, housing and
financing. “I'm sure there is going to be research on how many homes
are being built, how many are being sold,” says Gazarian. “And
developers can use this information to plan ahead. All of this is
going to be rolled, as I understand it, under the umbrella of the Real
Estate Center.”
Dr. Gazarian says he and his wife have seen the sprawl in southern
California, and it has been difficult for them to understand the
reason: whether it was poor deliberate planning or the lack of smart
planning that created the sprawl.
“We felt like we didn't want to see growth that wasn't really smart in
the Central Valley,” says Dr. Gazarian, citing the endless list of
problems facing the Central San Joaquin, including congested roadways
and highways and environmental and air quality issues.
“We thought about it; we thought that one thing that Fresno State
doesn't have is a real estate department,” says Dr. Gazarian. “A place
where people in the business can come together under one umbrella to
discuss their needs.”
“Arnold and Dianne Gazarian share our cause of taking responsibility
for the well-being of our community, and training effective planning
leaders for the future,” says School of Business Dean Doug Hensler.
“We are thrilled that they have chosen to name the 'Arnold and Dianne
Gazarian Real Estate Center,' and we look forward to a long-term,
productive partnership with the Gazarian family in the cause of real
estate and land-use planning,”
Dr. Gazarian says the School of Business at Fresno State will offer
its real estate courses under the umbrella of the Real Estate Center,
where symposiums can be held “so we can start growing the smart way in
the Valley.”
“This gift,” says Dr. Hensler, “will allow us to leverage the work in
the Real Estate and Land Use Institute by John Mahoney and Garo
Kalfayan, where data is compiled and disseminated. We will begin to
use that data in a way that allows for better planning in the region.”
by Paul Chaderjian
ARMENIAN REPORTER
FRESNO, CA - Though Native Americans lived here as far back as 6,000
years before Christ, this story begins in the mid-1800s, when a
railroad baron established a depot here - setting modern day
development into motion.
Spanish explorers had deemed the empty, arid desert uninhabitable, and
passed through it, as did the Gold Rush-era '49ers. But when a
labyrinth of irrigation canals was built on this mostly-flat terrain,
the region's Mediterranean climate allowed waves of immigrants to turn
the southern San Joaquin Valley into the most agriculturally bountiful
area in the world.
Now this region, dubbed by the media as the “New California,” is home
to a booming population of more than three million people. It is the
raisin capital of the world, produces more than 250 crops, and
provides a quarter of the food eaten in the U.S. The Southern San
Joaquin Valley's agricultural business brings in more than $16 billion
in revenues every year.
In this booming region, once an empty desert, a retired dentist and
his wife, the children of hard-working immigrants, are helping the
local university to address regional challenges and to maintain its
role as the intellectual and educational center for the Central San
Joaquin Valley.
With a gift of one-and-a-half million dollars, Dr. Arnold and Diane
Gazarian are establishing a real estate center at California State
University, Fresno, and helping to launch the biggest fundraising
effort in the university's 100-year history.
“We've been blessed,” says Dr. Gazarian when we meet for coffee at his
daughter's business, Uncle Harry's New York Bagelry, in North Fresno.
“We've really been blessed, and we're fortunate enough to be able to
do it. I think it's going to be very good for the valley. I think it's
going to help with the education of a lot of people who are interested
in this field.”
“The Gazarian gift sets the stage for Fresno State and the Craig
School of Business to become the central player in real estate
research in the Central Valley,” says Dr. Douglas Hensler, chair of
the Dean and Sid Craig School of Business at CSUF.
The Gazarians and university officials envision creating a think-tank
in the next three years that can execute fact-based planning for
growth, a place where academics can pursue specialized degrees,
conduct massive research projects, hold symposia, and come together
with community and business leaders and the public to jointly address
not just growth but also the economic, social, and environmental
concerns of the region.
“We talked about the donation with the Dean of the School of Business
for a number of months,” says Dr. Gazarian, “and the decision was to
make the investment in the university. I think that's what it is. It's
an investment in the Valley's future, the university's future...and
hopefully an investment in humankind.”
The Gazarians' generosity and “investment in humankind” began several
decades ago. The couple has been behind some major education
initiatives, and has served on the Fresno State Foundation Board of
Governors for more than 10 years. Dianne Gazarian (nee Berberian)
directs the Berberian and Gazarian Family Foundation, and the couple
established the Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair in Armenian
Studies at Fresno State nearly two decades ago.
“Diane and Arnold have been the most impressive consistent supporters
of the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State, since they enabled
the establishment of the first full-time and functioning endowed chair
in any discipline on our campus,” says Dr. Dickran Kouymjian,
professor, director and coordinator of the Center for Armenian Studies
at CSUF.
Dr. Kouymjian, who holds the Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair,
says the Gazarians established the chair in honor of Diane's mother
and father. “But their contribution only began with the donation,”
says Dr. Kouymjian. “For the past 20 years they have been unfailing in
their support.”
Dr. Gazarian served as the president of the Armenian Studies Program
Advisory Board for many years, and Dr. Kouymjian says Arnold and Diane
have been generous with their advice and help on nearly every
important issue.
“They have also never refused to organized receptions and other events
in their gracious home,” says Dr. Kouymjian. “They have asked for
nothing in return, and both of them and their children never seek
publicity or other distinctions. They are hard-working, elegant
people, with a permanent concern for the Armenian Studies Program,
Fresno State, and their city, Fresno.”
* Unpaved streets and sidewalks
When 76-year-old Arnold Gazarian was a teenager, he walked a mile to
school and helped out his parents on the family's raisin farm near
Fowler, CA. He says he remembers things very vividly, especially his
dream to grow up and become a dentist.
“An uncle in Fresno was a dentist,” recalls Gazarian. “What I liked
about that is that the dental office was always clean. He was never
perspiring or dirty working under the vines. I thought, this is a
great life, and I want to be working with my hands, and this is what I
want to be.”
Life on the farm was difficult, says Gazarian. “Mom and dad worked the
ranch, as raisin growers. There were no sidewalks out on the ranch, no
asphalt driveway. When it rained, it would be muddy. Hot water and
heat and cooking was done all on a wood stove, whether it was the
middle of summer or dead of winter.”
Groceries were purchased on credit until the crop came in and his
parents were able to pay their bills. “I guess what we would do is
once a week, we would go to an Armenian store in Fresno to do our
shopping. After the crop would come in, mom and dad would go and pay
off the bill, or TRY to pay off the bill - almost all of it.”
“After World War II was over,” remembers Gazarian, “we got at that
time a butane stove and a butane heater at the house. And a butane
water heater. We'd made our weekly trip to Fresno, and we came home on
a cold winter afternoon and it had been installed. And all I did was
open the hot water tap - and voila, there was hot water!”
He laughs. “It was like downtown,” he says. “I must have been about
13. It is something that I will never ever forget.”
After high school, Gazarian attended Reedley Community College,
enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley for a year, then
transferred across the Bay to UC San Francisco's School of Dentistry.
He began his dentistry practice in 1956 and retired after 33 years,
when the family's farming, real estate, and development businesses
began demanding more of his attention.
“Since I was six or seven years old,” he says, “that's all I wanted to
be, a dentist. Little did I realize that the profession I was going in
wasn't the cleanest in the world. The mouth has more bacteria than any
place else in the body.”
But though it wasn't exactly the clean job he had envisioned,
dentistry ended up being a very rewarding profession, says Gazarian.
“My patients were the light of my life,” he says. “I'd wake up in the
morning, and I couldn't wait to get to work, because I enjoyed it. It
was a great profession, in that I was usually done by five o'clock,
and Dianne could have dinner on the table at six o'clock to eat with
the kids, and we always did. Six, 6:15, every day, dinner was on the
table, and we sat around as a family and had dinner.”
The Gazarians, whose parents came from Kars and Kharpert via
Massachusetts, raised four daughters, and now have five grandkids.
“This is my third daughter that owns this place,” he says, referring
to the Bagelry. “She and her husband put together Uncle Harry's and
now Betty's Sandwiches, named after my mother-in-law. My father-in-law
was known as Harry back East, and my mother-in-law always used to call
him Harry. My mother-in-law's name was Isabelle, but everybody called
her Betty.”
When the Berberian and Gazarian family business began demanding more
of his attention, Dr. Gazarian had less and less time to practice
dentistry. “We farmed about a couple of thousand of acres between here
and Modesto,” he says. “Our major crop was almonds. We also farmed
cling peaches, cherries, citrus, grapes and, table grapes.”
When his father-in-law passed away, Gazarian found himself spending
more time in the property management and development businesses.
“Every time someone would call, I literally had my hands in someone's
mouth. So, it got to the point that I had to move on. It was time to
close chapter in the book and open up another chapter.”
* Community service
Dr. Gazarian emphasizes that he and his wife have been very fortunate,
and their latest gift to Fresno State is just another way of giving
back to the community. “The good Lord has been good to us,” he says,
“and we are giving back to the community that has allowed us to do
what little we've been able to do.”
For the past 50 years, Gazarian has been giving back as a member of
the Exchange Club community service organization. “I've been through
the chairs. Everything from president to secretary,” he says, “and I'm
kind of now a knife-and-forker.” Gazarian never missed a weekly
meeting during his career in dentistry. He says he had a lot of fun
doing good work for the community, like helping abused children.
“That's our major project,” he says.
Along with helping victims of abuse and trying to stop child abuse,
the Exchange Club reaches out to underprivileged children with help,
honors members of the law enforcement community, provides scholarships
and honors to high school students, and even has its members ring
bells for the Salvation Army every holiday season.
Gazarian says he and his wife owe their success in life to public
schools and colleges, and he attributes their education to the
education system funded by the public. “These institutions didn't just
happen,” he says. “And people don't do things by just themselves.”
The retired dentist says he could not turn down an invitation from
Fresno State President Dr. John D. Welty 10 years ago to serve on the
Fresno State Foundation Board. “Diane and I discussed it, and we said,
you know, it's something we're interested in - so why not? You cannot
help but get interested in what Fresno State is doing, and in
education.”
With the Gazarians' input, Fresno State strengthened its development
department and created development directors for each of the schools
at the university. “A few years ago,” says Dr. Gazarian, “we decided
to move ahead with a comprehensive campaign for the university, and
the reason for that is the state of California today.
Dr. Gazarian says state funding of public universities covers only
about three-quarters of the costs, compared to a decade ago when
California covered about 95 percent of the budget. “State funding is
beginning to diminish,” says Dr. Gazarian, “and without private
support, the university is not going to flourish.”
* The new California
Fresno State's largest fundraising effort touts the Central San
Joaquin Valley as the “New California,” citing similar references to
the region by the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, National Public Radio, and
the Public Policy Institute of California. TIME Magazine called the
region “the last Real California” and said that Fresno was “the last
Real California left.”
The city and county of Fresno are named after the ash trees that are
said to have lined the nearby San Joaquin River, which flowed out of
the icy Sierras. That river, which at one time was so large that
steamboats ferried people up to Stockton and Sacramento, is now dammed
in a dozen places in the mountains and nearly dry on the valley floor.
But the farmland that the canals were built to water is now being
turned into miles and miles of new neighborhoods. Escalating real
estate prices in other parts of the state are driving more and more
people to Central California from the Bay Area and Southern
California. Volumes have been written about the loss of the family
farms, and how that loss is resulting in the loss of a distinctive
American culture and family values.
Challenging development and redevelopment concerns have been
sensational cases like “Operation Rezone.” The FBI investigation,
broken in the media by L.A. TIMES journalist Mark Arax, resulted in
the conviction of more than a dozen, including Fresno and Clovis city
council members. They were accused and convicted of accepting bribes
from developers to rezone parcels of land.
Cheap housing and unchecked, sometimes illegal, development have
created a shift in population in California. NPR called this
agriculturally bountiful region the final destination for a “reverse
migration” from the coast into the Central Valley.
“In the next 40 years,” NPR reported, “experts foresee a California
with 24 million more residents, populating cities where now they see
only farmland and foothills. California is not an idea moving west,
but an idea moving east.”
“Driven by demographic, cultural and political shifts,” wrote the
CHRONICLE, “a rift is growing between California's coast and its
interior, replacing the north-south split that has defined state
politics for more than 150 years.”
Fresno State says the Public Policy Institute of California see the
Central Valley's population increasing at a rapid pace, surpassing
every other major region of the state. “Over the years, this trend
will dramatically alter the state's social and political landscape,”
says the Institute. “For the first time since the Gold Rush, more than
half of Californians live outside the Bay Area and Los Angeles.”
Fresno State fundraisers say that this “New California” covers an area
larger than 11 states, measures up to the geographic size of
Tennessee, has three million residents, and that “in the midst of
growth is the region's intellectual, academic and sports entertainment
leader, the University of the New California, Fresno State.
“We are in a growing part of California,” says Dr. Gazarian. “We are
probably the only growing part of California. The major growing force
within California is here in the Central Valley, so it is important
for the university to thrive.”
Gazarian says the “New California” campaign at Fresno State is still
in its quiet stages. “As it began rolling along,” he says, “Diane and
I decided, you know, we need to do something for the university.”
Their interest in education, coupled with their growing involvement
with real estate professionals and bigger investments in real estate,
helped them formulate their interest in establishing an academic
environment for the study and application of real estate.
“In real estate, when someone makes an investment,” says Gazarian,
“it's generally the biggest investment they'll make. And ethics are
very important, whether it's in the lending business or the mortgage
business. It all falls under the umbrella of real estate.”
Gazarian says all one has to do is look at the newspaper headlines to
see how people are being cheated out of their life savings. “I'm
talking about ethics in general. I just think ethics is really
important. I don't care what the business is. I don't care if it's
law, medicine, digging ditches, dentistry, plumbing or carpeting;
ethics is real important.”
Dr. Gazarian's vision for the Real Estate Center is to address issues
like ethics as well as real estate planning, sales, housing and
financing. “I'm sure there is going to be research on how many homes
are being built, how many are being sold,” says Gazarian. “And
developers can use this information to plan ahead. All of this is
going to be rolled, as I understand it, under the umbrella of the Real
Estate Center.”
Dr. Gazarian says he and his wife have seen the sprawl in southern
California, and it has been difficult for them to understand the
reason: whether it was poor deliberate planning or the lack of smart
planning that created the sprawl.
“We felt like we didn't want to see growth that wasn't really smart in
the Central Valley,” says Dr. Gazarian, citing the endless list of
problems facing the Central San Joaquin, including congested roadways
and highways and environmental and air quality issues.
“We thought about it; we thought that one thing that Fresno State
doesn't have is a real estate department,” says Dr. Gazarian. “A place
where people in the business can come together under one umbrella to
discuss their needs.”
“Arnold and Dianne Gazarian share our cause of taking responsibility
for the well-being of our community, and training effective planning
leaders for the future,” says School of Business Dean Doug Hensler.
“We are thrilled that they have chosen to name the 'Arnold and Dianne
Gazarian Real Estate Center,' and we look forward to a long-term,
productive partnership with the Gazarian family in the cause of real
estate and land-use planning,”
Dr. Gazarian says the School of Business at Fresno State will offer
its real estate courses under the umbrella of the Real Estate Center,
where symposiums can be held “so we can start growing the smart way in
the Valley.”
“This gift,” says Dr. Hensler, “will allow us to leverage the work in
the Real Estate and Land Use Institute by John Mahoney and Garo
Kalfayan, where data is compiled and disseminated. We will begin to
use that data in a way that allows for better planning in the region.”
Comments
Post a Comment