Former real estate investor, power broker, and business tycoon Bill Levy, whose controversial lower State Street timeshare project La Entrada gripped the city and its investors for more than a decade, has died.
He was 76.
“He was an extraordinary powerhouse in Santa Barbara real estate and development,” said attorney A. Barry Cappello. “From shopping centers, to owning a semi-pro basketball team, the Santa Barbara Strikers, to running a bank he formed, he did everything with style and grace.”
Levy was the developer behind the original La Entrada project, which included 62 timeshare condos. He pulled together investors in the project, which he envisioned as transforming lower State Street and its waterfront.
The project lingered for years before it was eventually rejected by the Santa Barbara Planning Commission. It won approval from the City Council on appeal.
“What came to the Planning Commission was a project that was just out of scale,” said former Santa Barbara City Councilman Harwood “Bendy” White, who was on the commission at the time.
But the project, which included underground parking, was never built.
The funding for the project collapsed, Levy was hit with lawsuits, and the project was eventually foreclosed on by the bank. Michael Rosenfeld eventually purchased the project and turned it into a transformed Hotel Californian.
The controversies surrounding La Entrada remained part of Levy’s legacy, but he also had many successes.
Cappello described Levy as a friend who he knew for more than 40 years.
“Everything he touched, he did well, music, golf, business, friendship,” Cappello said. “Everyone who knew him never had a harsh word, sure some business disputes, but even those folks that disagreed with him secretly liked him and could really never say anything personally negative.”
Former Community Development Director Dave Davis said Levy was a “mover and shaker” in the land-development community from the 1970s to the 1990s.
He recalled that Levy attempted to develop a four-story office building on the corner of Carrillo and Chapala streets, but eventually sold the property, which became the Ralphs supermarket.
“He actually did develop the Paseo Nuevo Cinemas and frontage on State Street at State and De la Guerra,” Davis said.
Public Affairs consultant John Davies worked with Levy on land entitlements locally and with the California Coastal Commission.
“Bill made incredible relationships, and never gave up on even the most impossible task,” Davies said. “He listened to advisors, weighing strategies. He was smart, with an impressive memory, and tenacious.”
Levy also founded County Savings Bank, an institution that collapsed during the savings and loans crisis in the 1980s, which saw more than 1,000 similar banks close their doors.
In his personal life, Levy was married to his wife, Laura, for the past 34 years.
“Bill’s marriage to Laura cemented his happiness with the other things in life, things other than business and winning,” Cappello said. “She has been a guiding force for him in the second half of his journey here on earth.”
A service to honor Levy will be held at 11 a.m. March 13 at the Old Mission of Santa Barbara, 2201 Laguna St., Santa Barbara. He will be buried in the Santa Barbara Cemetery in a private ceremony.
An invitation-only celebration of life will follow at Birnam Wood Golf Club, 1941 E. Valley Road, Montecito.