FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The long-awaited re-opening of the Hotel Fresno is now a reality. City leaders held a ribbon cutting Thursday to celebrate the five-year-long housing project. But this is just the beginning of Fresno Downtown's revitalization, as Mayor Jerry Dyer has a vision for Downtown to be a place where people can live, work, and play. "And the only way you can really do that, one of the ways you can do it is through increasing your housing," Dyer said. Hotel Fresno sat vacant for over 40 years, but the project finally took off in 2019, thanks to funding from the developers, the City of Fresno and the state. "The total project cost for the hotel for us was about $36 million," Dyer said. The hotel was transformed from a dilapidated concrete and brick structure to a fresh, white building that now houses 81 mixed-income units - which are all fully leased. "So you've got a variety of people living in Hotel Fresno," Dyer said. This historic hotel still has its old charm with its Grande fireplace, tall columns, and original flooring. The bottom floor is also now open for retail.  "That we hope to fill soon,” Dyer said. With this project now complete, Dyer says they're moving on to the next, with several housing projects already in progress. "Other buildings downtown that have been vacant for years, we had the Gottschalk Building, the Penny's building." When Dyer took office in 2021, there were just under 3,000 residents living in Downtown Fresno. His goal is to increase the population to 10,000, with the Fresno Hotel playing a small but significant role in this vision.