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 Souther...