The owner of Old Town Antiques announced it will be closing its downtown Santa Barbara storefront.
This week, owner Larry Zajic announced the antique and thrift store is forced to close after the landlord increased their monthly rent by $1,000 at their 33 W. Anapamu Street location.
“Been in business 30 years. Everyone is sad. Except the landlord. It’s happened twice before. So not so shocking,” wrote Zajic on social media.
He went on to state the store’s customers have been supportive and fantastic.
An official closing date has yet to be formally announced.
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“forced to close after the landlord increased their monthly rent by $1,000” – which is why we need to open State st. so cars can drive up and down it. Right?
How would State Street help since that store is on Anapamu Street? Anapamu isn’t closed to cars.
Well THAT’S damning of landlords. Not like they don’t know the state of retail.
Cost living has increased 20% since 2020, not the landlords fault.
And people wonder why downtown is circling the drain? One by one, the businesses that locals patronize are being pushed out, replaced with bars and high-end bistros and souvenir shops for tourists…or…vacancies. When I lived downtown in the 70s & 80s, I was able to walk to everything I needed. Now it’s just a Disneyland for tourists and drunk college kids, not a functioning community.
These commercial landlords need to be given a few months at the outside to fill these vacancies that their evictions cause, then need to be taxed heavily for them. It should no longer be a case where a landlord can make more money from vacant properties than if they’re rented. Enough. All this stuff is why this place is slowly collapsing.