Building Something Cool for Fresno: The Moses McQueen's Story
If you want there to be cool things in Fresno, you have to do cool things.
That’s the belief that has driven Nexgeneral Construction since day one — and it’s the same belief that led our founder, Phil Kliewer, to purchase a run-down 100-year-old house in Downtown Fresno back in 2017 with four of his closest friends.
That house is 634 Van Ness. And it’s about to become Moses McQueen’s.
A Building With a Century of Stories
The property at 634 Van Ness has been part of Fresno’s fabric for over a hundred years. It was originally home to Samuel Elia, an Armenian immigrant who settled in Fresno in the early 1900s when the neighborhood was one of the largest Armenian communities in the Western United States. Over the decades, the home evolved into a live/work property — a two-story duplex with a storefront commercial space — and housed generations of Fresno families before time and a nearby freeway construction slowly changed the neighborhood around it.
When Phil and his friends — Miguel, Diego, Chandelle, and Kristen — walked through those doors in 2017, they saw something most people would have overlooked: potential. Character. A building full of stories worth preserving.
They bought it that same year.
From Backyard Party to Downtown Destination
To test the concept, the group threw a backyard party during ArtHop in 2018. Hundreds of people showed up. The message was clear — Fresno was ready for this space.
What followed was years of planning, permitting, and a global pandemic that put everything on hold. Through it all, the vision never changed: transform 634 Van Ness into a laid-back, one-of-a-kind gathering spot where Fresno could come together.
That’s where Nexgeneral came in — not as a hired contractor, but as a co-owner and builder who had a personal stake in getting every detail right.
The Restoration
Restoring a 100-year-old historic home in Downtown Fresno isn’t a typical construction project. It requires balancing modern building codes with historic preservation, working within an existing structure that has decades of quirks, and delivering a finished space that honors the building’s character while making it functional for a modern bar and event venue.
The result is Moses McQueen’s: a warm, welcoming space with a one-of-a-kind outdoor courtyard, carefully restored interiors, and the kind of atmosphere that only a building with real history can provide.
Moses McQueen’s is set to open in Downtown Fresno in early 2026 — and the city is already buzzing.
Nexgeneral Construction is proud to call Fresno home. Projects like Moses McQueen’s are why we build — not just to construct spaces, but to invest in the city and the people who live here.
Interested in a commercial renovation or historic restoration project in Fresno or the Central Valley? We’d love to hear about it.