Edhat Staff
Photo: Thomas Camargo / Wikipedia
By edhat staff
The last remaining department store in downtown Santa Barbara announced it will close by August.
Nordstrom, located in the Paseo Nuevo Mall, will permanently shut its doors after 30 years in business.
The company’s corporate office confirmed the closure to KEYT News this week with the following message:
Our goal is to best position ourselves to serve customers in each market where we operate. Because of the impacts COVID-19 has had on our business, we need to take a critical look at the physical footprint of our stores to determine which we will continue to operate. To respond to the impacts of COVID-19 and ensure we’re able to continue serving customers well into the future, we will be closing 16 of our fleet of full-line stores, including Nordstrom Tyler, Nordstrom Santa Barbara Paseo Nuevo and Nordstrom Montclair Place. We selected these 16 stores based on a variety of factors, including the unique needs of the market, the current state of our business and real estate agreements.
We will not reopen these stores to the public and anticipate all 16 of these stores will be closed by August 2020. These types of decisions are never easy because we realize what this means for our employees. We’re committed to taking care of them as best we can, including providing support and resources through this transition.
The company announced on Tuesday it’s permanently closing 16 stores, five are located in California.
Nordstroms has 378 total locations that include 116 full-line stores, 247 discount Nordstrom Rack stores, 3 Jeffrey boutiques, 2 clearance stores, 5 Trunk Club clubhouses, and 5 Nordstrom local service hubs.
They are only closing full-line locations that multi-floor department stores that carry their entire assortment of products. This closure represents approximately 14% of the full-line stores.
This leaves the closest full-line Nordstrom location in Thousand Oaks with a Nordstrom Rack in Oxnard.
Paseo Nuevo Shopping Mall is now left without a major department store. The corner of State and Ortega Streets that used to house Macy’s has been empty since 2017.
Santa Barbara as a whole is left with one department store, Macy’s in the La Cumbre Plaza, since Sears closed last year.
Interesting turn of events considering the mall’s lease (if that is what you’d call free rent) is up for renewal. Even more telling of the lack of business insight and skill on this project was the head of Paseo’s marketing adamantly stating that Nordstrom’s “isn’t going anywhere” just 2 weeks ago. Read for yourselves folks and see how they city has gifted what is the mall to the private sector for a measly $300k a year in parking fees and of course, all that sales tax revenue… — – — – — https://www.noozhawk.com/article/city_ready_to_enter_big_deal_with_paseo_nuevo —
Once the new Super Dollar General Store is in place, the little Nordstrom cafe can be replaced with a Der Weinerschnitzel or (please, God!) a Del Taco.
Capitalism.
I could not agree more. These spaces are cursed ground in the year 2020. Huge department stores are not really a thing anymore outside of major cities, and even there, they are challenged.
Agree 100% Mixed use. Make these spaces into low income housing for our LOCALS.
Santa Barbara is careening into Ghost Town territory on State st. The huge enormous greedy rents will bar any local places from opening or surviving if they DO manage to open. We are left with the huge chain retail outlets with cheap crap from China. WAKE UP, City Council! Turn this into mixed use with housing for locals.
The City should have closed State St to private autos years ago and turned it into a thriving pedestrian outdoor space, with only electric shuttles and bicycles allowed. It’s still not too late.
I wonder what State Street will look like with only tumbleweeds after everything is gone.
This is not because of COVID-19. This closure was in the works before the shutdown. Sadly this store had been declining in the quality/quantity of its offerings for years. I don’t understand why a Nordstrom located in Santa Barbara would have thought that such a minimal selection of merchandise could keep the clientele happy. I became disenchanted with this location years ago but always tried to look there first before inevitably going South to the better stocked Nordstrom’s or elsewhere. I’d like to think if the company was more thoughtful about tailoring the store to the demographics of Santa Barbara it would have done better, but who knows…Either way its a loss for the town and for all those who were employed there. Another blow to Paseo Nuevo and Downtown SB.
There will still be panhandlers there so some of the original flavor of State will be present.
Who actually owns the land upon which Paseo Nuevo sits? From my humble perch, it seems that the best return on their investment is to literally tear the entire facility down and build mixed use dwellings from scratch. I would be shocked if preliminary plans for such a project do not already exist. And in this environment, I suspect that permits would be approved immediately. But again, it depends on the current owner of the property.
I agree with you. It was always a Catch-22 scenario. They didn’t get good merchandise, therefore they couldn’t make sales, therefore they didn’t get apportioned enough merchandise. Negative feedback look since the early ’90s. Countless times I went in to try to buy makeup or something – oh, it’s out of stock. Salespeople would complain they didn’t get stocked well because they didn’t sell much. How can you make a sale if you don’t have something? And the selection of what they did have was poor. I got a Nordstrom-exclusive jacket online last year. I literally had over 100 people stop me on the street in the last year asking me where I got it. I would tell them Nordstrom, except you can’t buy it at ours – you have to order it online. Department stores are challenged in an era of online shopping and discount-hunting, but there is no question they could have made more sales if they offered more desirable merchandise and actually had stuff in stock. Sad no matter what, though!
The worst thing about these biggies going under is that there is no one to fill these huge spaces. Maybe we could get a massive mega Dollar General Super Store. A jewel in our crown! Instead of the guy playing the piano near the escalator, they could have an organ grinder and a monkey. And maybe they could combine a Pep Boys and a Big Lots into the old Macy’s store at the other end of Paseo Nauseam. God, I miss Ott’s!
Keep buying online and china products . Or any out of country stuff.
Just cheap junk.
What happened to make America great again?????
People buy from Amazon because you click and you have your item within 2 days or less (usually). If you shop online at the store’s web sites it takes weeks to get your item. These companies need to embrace technology and shipping to stay competitive, otherwise they go the way of the dodo. You can combine a physical store with online shopping if you get the right minds in your management stream.
CRYSTALANDMAUI. You think most items sold at Nordstrom’s were made in USA? You think the MAGA crowd only buy USA-made items?
I agree with Rex. There is actually a good amount of data on how converting streets into pedesterian-only thoroughfares can harm businesses. It’s a nice idea in theory but in reality it doesn’t pan out. Not to mention, how do we keep it from becoming completely dominated by the homeless?
It is not just about rents. In fact, many landlords will accept LOWER rent from giant chains. Everyone should read this an explanation on how things actually work with commercial real estate: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iFkazH6rCJwJ:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-22/blame-the-banks-for-all-those-boring-chain-stores-ruining-your-city+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. This is a cached version which will allow you around the Bloomberg paywall. In fact, I have heard MANY retailers including people like Amy Cooper – owner of now-defunct Plum Goods – said that rents are not the problem.
Just turn Paseo Nuevo into a casino, big attraction for the cruise ship crowd, lots of taxes to pay gov’t pensions, a win win.
There has to be a way to re-purpose these huge stores into livable spaces. I grew up in an apartment on the main street of our town. It was great…all the grocery stores just down the stairs. Parades from the fire escape. If I was a young person now, living in some kind of space right on State St. would be OK. The homeless would be kicked off the street immediately. So what company has an idea and how do we get the zoning changed NOW to allow housing? Ditto for Sears at la Cumbre. Covid has made me an online shopper…..and I am seriously old school (age 72). I read gobbly gook from our new age City Council members and i want to barf. They are not thinking outside the box. They are thinking votes. Put housing all along State Street, even on the first floor and life will come back to our downtown.
The Casino is an EXCELLENT idea! Someone should contact the Chumash Administration ASAP!
Please explain how state street will come back to life if you turn it into housing “even on the first floor”? Do you go shopping in San Roque? Hope ranch? The last thing I want to do is take a vacation to a place that has all houses. How exciting.
Since we don’t need stores anymore for shopping, retail can be changed to housing for the illegals that keep coming to fill up the Democrat busses going to the rallies. This would mean that the “rest of the local citizens” could help to cover the never-ending salaries and pensions that are sure to expand upward in the future. We got to maintain our priorities.
I can see where your going with this, since you can drive down the street anyways, because there’s no street parking. I drove down state to see what it now looked like, I saw a lot of closed businesses and a lot b of homeless staking claim to store fronts. Most of the crimes are the homeless now. Because of no resources for the mentally ill.
Nope they don’t need to live on state street .
It was supposed to say you can’t park on state street.
Sure, at $2000 for a studio?
Closing State Street to vehicular traffic is a terrible idea. Santa Barbara is unique in that there is only one (1) main downtown shopping street. Shut it down to cars and that’s the end of the game.
Department stores deserve to go out of business because they charge too much for the same junk you can get elsewhere for much cheaper. For instance, I was in Nordstrom trying to spend a gift card I had and noticed they had a pile of surf t-shirts (O’Neill, Quicksilver, etc.), the same kind Costco has piled up on tables. Costco was selling those for around $12 each, but Nordstrom wanted $48—for the exact same cheap t-shirt. Then I went down to look at the cookware since I was in the market for a big stockpot. Hey, they have an All-Clad 16 quart pot and it’s only $300—what a deal! I had seen a similar All-Clad that was 14 quarts and it cost $400. Then I picked up the Nordstrom’s version and it was really light, so I turned it over and it was made in China. Turns out the more expensive 14 quart is still made in the US (like most All-Clad). I get that most people can’t or don’t want to spend $$$ on quality items, but if you’re going to buy cheap stuff made in China, at least learn to price compare and avoid overpaying for junk at places like Nordstrom.
Tear it down and build mixed use. And yes, the downtown area needs all the $2000 studios and $3000 one-bedrooms it can get. Those are filled with very well-employed millennials and wealthy retirees. They spend lots of money on items within walking distance.
It’s sad but almost certain Paseo Nuevo and the rest of State Street will continue to wither on the vine. It was difficult enough for retail to survive on State Street before the pandemic. With a looming recession and possible depression in combination with a “new normal” measures for reopening businesses the outlook is anything but grim.
San Diego’s gas lamp district is comprised of restaurants, bars, hotels, and condos. The place is hopping even when there is no convention or sports game. Yes, lots of people want to live there and lots of people want to take a vacation there. And if Amazon opened an office in the Gas Lamp their employees would be stoked to pay $2k for a studio down the street.
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