••• The Hayes Commercial Group’s recap of the fourth quarter of 2022 had a lot to chew on: 1) The sale of 40 Los Patos Way (Montecito Athletic Club) in November included 50 Los Patos Way (Stella Mare’s, above), which means L.A. developer Runyon just needs the Magic Castle Cabaret building and the apartments behind it to take over the entire block across from the bird refuge. Runyon’s plan to convert the Las Aves complex into The Post was revealed here in October; no word yet on what the future holds for Stella Mare’s.
2) Goleta’s Channel City Lumber is opening a hardware store at 3888 State Street (La Cumbre/Hope), next to Chuck’s of Hawaii.
3) A lease has been signed with “an unnamed tenant in the former Angel space at 1221 Coast Village Road.” Angel is moving to an undetermined location, but not for a few months, perhaps even late summer.
4) “The eastern half of the Pepper Tree Best Western at 3840 State Street was purchased in Q4 for $17.5 million by a development team headed by Michael Rosenfeld,” which explains why half of the hotel has been closed for a while.
••• In another noteworthy commercial real estate transaction, an LLC affiliated with St. Vincent’s recently paid $3.025 million for 4085 State Street (just east of Highway 154). A couple of weeks ago, a reader told me that she had it on good authority that St. Vincent’s has “partnered with the county to build an apartment complex for the homeless (budget is around $27 million). They are also going to expand on the needle exchange just down the road. Only thing is, the land is contaminated (from the gas station next door) but as the church/county is buying this for homeless they are going to waive the need to clean up the land. Oil seepage is 100 yards deep.” I reached out to St. Vincent’s to see how much of this is accurate, but I have not heard back. The 1.71-acre lot extends down the ridge, so it’s bigger than it appears from the street.
••• From a member of the Coral Casino: “Meetings with members were held [the other day] updating us on the timeline on the club. The crowd was rather feisty and left disappointed as there was no date given for a reopening and it seems doubtful it will be this year. On March 15, the club goes before the planning commission to seek approval for changes which include allowing the public access to Tydes restaurant and to not allow hotel guests access” to the club.
••• The Santa Barbara Antique Decorative Arts & Vintage Show & Sale is February 24-26 at the Earl Warren Showgrounds.
••• The stretch of E. Mountain Drive at the Cold Spring trailhead that was damaged in the big storm has reopened. Thanks to J. for the photo.
••• A MarBorg Industries executive explained the recent rate hike for non-curbside service. The contract with the county was renegotiated to help more customers pay less: everyone’s “basic service” charge (before extras such as larger containers) was lowered by 10 percent, which is being financed by charging more for the “concierge service” of retrieving containers from customers’ properties. Evidently, this change was already in place in other unincorporated parts of the county, such as the Goleta Valley; Montecito was the last area to get the bad news. The city of Santa Barbara has a separate contract that would have to be amended for the same thing to take place there. (And, yes, people with disabilities can apply for a waiver.) P.S. MarBorg also notified customers that “2022 was the last year that MarBorg offered ‘free Extra Green Waste Collection’ tags. As of January 1, 2023, we no longer accept these tags, so tagged bags will not be serviced. However, MarBorg account holders can now receive four free bulky item pickups each year, with a maximum of five items per pickup. That means you can have extra green waste picked up as part of your free bulky item collections.”
••• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Ziggy Marley, with special guests Mavis Staples and the Robert Randolph Band, play the Santa Barbara Bowl on August 4. I doubt Staples considers “Jaguar” among her signature songs, but as a Prince fan (he wrote and produced it), I’ve always loved it.
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In another hypocritical maneuver, the County gets a variance for hazardous waste where they are to build housing, because ”who cares? It’s just for the homeless!” ? Speaking from experience, mere mortals (tax paying citizens) would pay dearly for that kind of diagnosis and clean up.
Keep in mind that this is from a “source” and the article indicates that St. Vincent’s has been contacted to see “how much of it is accurate.” It is highly doubtful that they would receive a waiver for cleanup. Hazmat cleanup requirements are not based on a site being affordable. It’s based on the type of use, type of contamination, whether soils will be exposed, etc.
I also await more info about how this clean-up could be avoided.
The Sansum building at Foothill/Cieneguitas was built after “remediation” that was done — so poorly it had to be restarted and continues. Forget about living on the property there, we go to the doctor there to get healthy…? https://www.ourair.org/110620-pub-notice/
Great news on Channel City Lumber moving into upper state. The area has long been needing a hardware store. The drive out to Goleta or all the way down to Home Improvement added countless hours / days to projects and regular shopping. Great move and a great team. They’re super nice and always willing to help.
There is San Andres Hardware at the corner of San Andres and Micheltorena. It is quite well supplied.
Shirley, you must be joking. . .
When I need something, since live on the Westside, I try San Andres Hardware first (trying to shop local), then head to Home Improvement Center if I can’t find what I need. Having Channel City Lumber close by will be a good thing.
Dan Q. Must not shop there often…I shop there probably twice a weekend & rarely do they not have what I need. I bought graden stakes on Sunday, same price as Home Improvement & I found a sprinkler head that Home Improvement DIDN’T have. It’s owned by a local family, Chris & Papa run the store & shopping there is a feel good, old school Santa Barbara experience…just saying.
Do not use my full name as I have received some threats from challenging Ty Warner on his application to alter the land use restriction on the Coral Casino. He is holding the reopening the Coral Casino, closed for 3 years, hostage to altering the 87+ year private club restriction on Coral property to allow a public restaurant. While some members support his requested change based on some unenforceable promises he has made, there are many members who oppose his application because they find Mr Warner untrustworthy and are afraid to come forward publicly for fear of retribution. The ball is in his court to work out a compromise with members or go forward with the legal process.
Dan Q. Must not shop there often…I shop there probably twice a weekend & rarely do they not have what I need. I bought graden stakes on Sunday, same price as Home Improvement & I found a sprinkler head that Home Improvement DIDN’T have. It’s owned by a local family, Chris & Papa run the store & shopping there is a feel good, old school Santa Barbara experience…just saying.