Construction Permits to be Issued for Long Awaited Entrada de Santa Barbara Project
After years of planning, financial setbacks, and city meetings, the Entrada de Santa Barbara project is about to begin on lower State St. near the waterfront.
The city says construction permits are expected to be issued September 22.
The project will have 123 hotel rooms, 264 parking spaces and 20,000 square feet of retail.
The facade of the landmark Californian Hotel will remain in place as part of the project design.
Work is expected to be completed sometime in 2016.
The developer is 35 State Street Hotel Partners, led by Los Angeles businessman and investor Michael Rosenfeld. He took over the dormant Entrada project in 2011 for an undisclosed price.
Rosenfeld has told community members and city leaders the project will be completed in one phase, not on a start and stop schedule.
This will be the most significant project in size, bulk and scale Santa Barbara has seen since the construction of the Paseo Nuevo Mall more than 20 years ago.
It has also been the focus of seemingly endless reviews and long city council meetings to come up with a design that would serve many needs, both from a private development aspect, to a project that would be a gateway from the Stearns Wharf to downtown.
Demolition of a building on Mason St. and State St. where Hot Spots coffee is located, is expected by the end of the year. The building also has many murals that have been painted and repainted by local artists. They were told earlier this year, the end of that project had arrived and no more murals could go up.
