••• Last we heard about the Quality Inn at the corner of De La Vina and Samarkand Drive, just below State Street, was that the Palisociety group intended to paint it purple and reflag it as an Arrive hotel. (The property was purchased for $9.7 million in March 2022.) Now, says M., neighbors have received a letter from the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara about its proposal to buy the building and convert it to “permanent affordable housing.” I reached out to Housing Authority executive director Rob Fredericks to ask about how many units and whom it would serve. His response….
Thank you for reaching out about the Quality Inn property. Part of our planned acquisition is to convert the hotel into permanent affordable housing. The funding sources for the acquisition and rehab require serving extremely low income households of which there is a great need to provide housing to this income bracket throughout Santa Barbara—whether they are part of the workforce or a senior or a disabled individual who is at risk of homelessness or actually homeless.
The property currently consists of 34 hotel rooms. We are not redeveloping the property with any greater number of units. Our plan is to convert the rooms to small studio units with kitchenettes. This will be permanent housing, which we will manage with onsite managers 24/7 and support services for anyone in need of services.
I see benefits for the community rather than negatives in converting from the current use. Traffic will actually decrease with limited vehicles. We will be upgrading the property to our standards which would improve the neighborhood and we will be creating controlled access for ingress and egress.
As will be shared at the community meeting, the Housing Authority has an excellent track record of providing these types of homes throughout the City for which our team is very proud. They include El Carrillo, Artisan Court, Bradley Studios, Vera Cruz Village and others. This is due to our care in design, strong management and our commitment to be a good and responsive neighbor.
And I asked about the swimming pool, which he said would be removed.
••• Pierced Santa Barbara, a “luxury piercing studio,” has opened in the Funk Zone.
••• The new owner of 801 State Street—which was going to become a hotel at one point—invited me over for a look. The plan is to convert the ground floor into three small commercial spaces, at least one of which will likely be a restaurant, with residential condos above. The interior photo below is of the second floor as it looks now; there’s still time to snap it up and make it one big loft….
••• One of Sullivan Goss‘s three current exhibits, Points of Origin, includes a work of local interest: “Day Light Savings – Victoria Market” by Patricia Chidlaw. It sold fast.
••• “I’d like to know why Hope Ranch is replacing its stately Canary Island date palms lining Las Palmas Drive with what look like medjool date palms,” emailed B. Hope Ranch general manager Jill Van Zeebroeck said the Canary Island palms are susceptible to a fungal disease called fusarium: “You can tell from the dead fronds—the trees look sickly. So we’ve been systematically replacing the really bad ones on Las Palmas and Marina Drive with male Phoenix date palms, which are resistant to the fungus.” The project has actually been underway for around four years—”and we have a ways to go.”
••• Opening January 13 at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara: Uncommon Ground, paintings and collages by Scott Johnson, “the founding design partner of Johnson Fain, an international, award-winning architecture, urban design and planning, and interiors firm based in Los Angeles, and a long-time mixed-media artist. His paintings and collages chronicle his interest in the interplay between rational thinking and intuition, which translates to a visual dialogue between geometric forms and free forms, between logical pre-planning and invention and spontaneity. Added to the mix are familiar elements from our current media landscape in conversation with more personal, inscrutable ones.”
••• I finally went to check out the new-ish bike path linking Santa Claus Lane and Carpinteria Avenue. It’s far nicer than riding on Via Real, although I found the interchange with Santa Claus Lane clunky—if you’re coming from Carp, you get dumped out onto the left side of the street. P.S. The “road closed” signs on Padaro Lane have yet to be removed, but the street is completely passable.
················
Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter and you’ll never miss a post.
If you want to see a sad example of Canary Island palms with fusarium disease check out the group at Goat Tree, corner of State and Mason streets. I’ve been told it was introduced to the south coast by tree trimmers from the LA area when they didn’t clean the chainsaws between jobs. Really unfortunate as there is no cure.
I’ve been wondering why those looked so terrible. Sad. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Love the Chidlaw piece. The market is iconic!
I support the Quality Inn conversion. We live just off State and our property is backed by transitional housing, and low-income regular working families. We have had ZERO issues living among these apartments, and it hasn’t brought down the value of our home.
This is a great use of this property: walkable to groceries, medical services, a park, public transportation, etc.
Have to say I am happy to hear about the housing plan for the Quality Inn on De La Vina versus an Arrive Hotel… or for that matter another hotel addition on State Street. I think this year was a big wake up call to occupancy rates for hotels. Glad to see supply and demand doing its thing – now if there was a focus on the demand for affordable rentals and housing in the area, I’d think we’d all be a little happier.
Where does the money come from to enable “affordable housing”? Why take an existing hotel that will bring in tax revenue, provide jobs, help support local businesses (teddy by the sea across the street slated to be developed and the new Institutional Ale next to Chubbies) ? Plenty of other locations to convert to affordable housing but this location should remain a commercial enterprise.
You could have just said “not in my backyard”
Quality Inn conversion will bring down the value of the homes in that neighborhood. There are houses right next to that property. 34 permanent residents vs. occasional hotel guests. Mr. Fredericks is mistaken in my opinion. The meeting is this Thursday if anyone wants to attend
Living next to a motel is desirable? Housing Authority does a stellar job housing low income seniors and others and I commend them and Mr. Fredericks.
Agree. Their other low income properties blend seamlessly into their neighborhoods. This is a win.
I looked at the other projects. They are downtown and very close to hwy 101. Not the case here. And on an extremely prominent corner. This will be very different in a negative way
The Quality Inn conversion to “affordable housing” is a potential risk to both the Samarkand and San Roque neighborhoods. The City has yet to define who will qualify to receive units at the converted hotel but it is already clear that families and single mothers will not qualify (the room are too small.) That leaves only single males. Is this going to be another fiasco, like the Rose motel?
You seem to be leaving out women that don’t have children. I know they don’t fit your narrative, but it seems like a pretty big oversight.
Agree completely. And very little outreach to neighborhoods directly affected.
Except women will qualify, not just men
Now we are talking, Rob. Converted hotels are perfect for permanent housing. Interim housing is a waste of money. The Red Rose in one of them. La Posada another.