Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
The building that housed a Macy’s department store in downtown Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo mall will now become a “fun center” with a roller rink, laser tag, and arcade.
Aloha Fun Center will lease the ground floor of the building at 701 State Street. The second and third-floor spaces are still available to rent.
The Fun Centers have two other locations in San Jose and Emeryville and are currently advertising open positions through their social media channels for skate guards, skate instructors, emcee DJ, and an assistant general manager.
Macy’s closed the location in 2017 and sections of the space have since been used for small pop-up stores.
In March of this year, Hayes Commercial Group announced the three-story, 132,500 square-foot building is being restructured to provide the largest office floor plans in downtown Santa Barbara with the ground floor simultaneously being marketed to retail, restaurant, and grocery tenants.
Commercial realtors hoped to nab a growing tech company to lease the space since companies like Amazon, Honey, Sonos, and Invoca are already leasing large office spaces along the State Street corridor.
Aloha Fun Center is aiming to open before the end of the year.
Putting a recreation center smack in the middle of East Side and West Side gang territory…. what could go wrong?
fun center on the main floor– sounds fun but do not think I would want my office upstairs.
So weird.
Seems like a good idea, sort of a return to penny arcades, but modernized. Drop the kids off at the Aloha Fun Center while the folks head to the Drunk Zone.
If you are bored, then you are boring. Queen Mother’s advice to her young daughters. Pass it on to anyone who claims “there is nothing to do” in Santa Barbara.
Gone in five years
BYZ – who is “bored?” I don’t understand the point of your comment. This is a great facility for young people to hang out, as opposed to lurking around on State street getting into trouble.
The omicron variant is far from “impervious to vaccination”. Stop spreading antivax FUD.
80% of the US Omicron cases are in the fully vaccinated. That’s a complete reversal from prior variants. Good news though, so far it’s extremely mild. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-reported-us-omicron-cases-have-hit-fully-vaccinated-cdc-2021-12-10/
“Macy’s on State Street was ground zero for the Eastside-Westside turf wars.” What?? Bwahahahah! No, not at all, not ever. Macy’s didn’t close because of gangs.
When most of your population is vaccinated, of course most of your cases will be among the vaccinated. That’s a highly misleading statistic, especially since it is based on a small number of cases (so far). Using the word”impervious” implies that vaccines have no effect. That’s very very far from true. Being boosted helps even more, though again not perfect.
3:52 – sadly, only 60% of our population is vaccinated. While it’s technically “most,” it’s probably not enough to really skew the stat so much that it’s “highly misleading.”
BYZ – that’s brilliant. Yes, let’s stop building “taverns, restaurants, bowling alleys, pool halls, amusement arcades, and parks” and “laundromats, barber shops, and garages.” Great idea!
Anyway, none of that bolsters, supports, evidences, backs up, or even hints at your claim of Macy’s having been “ground zero” for turf wars.
It’s as if you wander in here and proudly proclaim whatever nonsense you’re angry at that particular moment as “fact” without even the slightest attempt to verify. Wild, just wild.
whoever has been here through the 80’s
we had all this, literally had ALL THIS. the city banned arcades because they brought “unsavory” characters. and they didnt want that vibe
well. now they want the money
This city sold its future and its soul decades ago. The absolute worst industry you can foster and promote is tourism. Low wage jobs, low skill employees, massive abuse of public resources and excessive costs levied upon the citizens. All so the city can grow its tax revenue while putting us further and further into debt. A few more years of this stuff and Santa Barbara will be known as the Atlantic City of the west…
Gang territory? HAA.. do you even live in SB? First of all, the location is in the middle of downtown, and second if there are gangs.. there are 10s of thousands of people not in gangs and millions and millions of dollars in properties in those neighborhoods. (Technically the fun center is on the westside… so eat that eastsiders….lol)
100% agree with your statement. wouldnt it be an amazing thing, if the city fostered and promoted local business over tourism. Residents over visitors, Community over Influence. we can dream I guess…..
Nobody wants to go down there with the gangs and homeless. Lived here 35 years. I’ve seen guns and jump ins on state street. And who are you calling “you people”? It will be considered territory wants it’s doors open.