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A fire broke out at a historic Mira Flores building Friday morning as volunteers were conducting a cleanup event at the adjacent Greenbelt Park, city officials said.
Mira Flores is the former site of the historic Sakai and Oishi nurseries, founded by Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s.
The blaze occurred at the long-troubled development site, with witnesses reporting people running from the property as flames erupted. No injuries were immediately reported.
District 3 City Councilmember Doria Robinson confirmed the fire happened during a volunteer day that had drawn community members to clean up Greenbelt Park. Robinson described the timing as particularly painful given the positive community engagement taking place nearby.
“Today, when we were out there doing volunteer work to clean up the park, and people were reportedly running out of the property while it was on fire,” Robinson posted on social media.
Robinson said that addressing the issue of individuals entering the premises has been an ongoing challenge. While police and CORE teams have reportedly removed people from the building, they consistently return.
“If you’ve been following, we had a community meeting with the new owners and neighbors discussing this and talking about all the additional steps they have taken to make constant repairs to the fences, etc,” Robinson said.
The Mira Flores project has faced years of delays and complications. The mixed-use development was originally planned to include residential units, commercial space and preservation of the historic buildings. Previous developers encountered financial difficulties, leaving the project stalled.
In 2016, the Richmond Redevelopment Agency acquired the nursery property. City officials in Richmond had the goals of constructing affordable senior housing, developing a park, and restoring the existing nursery buildings on the site.
A new property owner recently took control of the site and has been working with the city on security improvements, including fence repairs and other protective measures. Robinson said a community meeting was held with the new owners and neighbors to discuss additional security steps.
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Richmond Councilmember Doria Robison reported the new owner of the former Miraflores property is possibly interested in picking up the bankrupt housing project near I-80. Miraflores is the former site of the historic Sakai and Oishi nurseries, founded by Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s. The proposed project consisted of
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“If you’ve been following Mira Flores, you’d know I’ve been pushing hard to get the project on the right track, and we’ve made tremendous progress with a new property owner, the park moving forward,” Robinson said. “I will continue to push until this project is realized.”
Over the years, Richmond has lost several important buildings to fire.
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Richmond firefighters responded to the 100 block of Espee Avenue around 2:30 a.m. Sunday for a commercial structure fire at the former Burnt Ramen punk rock music club.
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The extent of damage to the historic structures was not immediately available. Following the fire, members of the Red Cross were on the scene providing assistance.
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