One of Santa Barbara’s iconic hotels is up for sale.
Hotel Santa Barbara, built in 1926, has been listed on the market for $49 million.
Noozhawk asked longtime owner Rolland Jacks why he is selling the boutique hotel at 533 State St.
“I am ready to move on,” the 87-year-old Jacks said. “I don’t need to. I want to simplify my life.”
According to the Berkshire Hathaway listing, it’s a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a trophy, downtown landmark with high-quality architectural detail positioned in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. The hotel sits upon a little over a half-acre with 75 guest rooms, a lobby, and six street-level retail spaces, with the retail being anchored by a Starbucks Coffee.”
Jacks purchased the hotel in 1975, “when it was a dirty, scary, smelly flophouse, not a good place for people to live. It was not good, almost dangerous,” he said.
He called it the Schooner Inn at the time, and Jacks said he transformed it into a “nice, safe place for people of all incomes.”
In 1996, he closed it down and reopened it as Hotel Santa Barbara, an upscale boutique hotel. For decades, he offered rooms for free to missionaries and pastors.
Jacks was born in Compton and grew up in nearby Lynwood.
He attended Westmont College and was in the first class at UCSB. He got married and moved, then returned to become chair of Westmont’s education department from 1972 to 1976.
Jacks noted that when he bought the hotel in the 1970s, it was not an inviting place. Drinking was allowed in public, he said.
“You could buy hard liquor and drink it on the street and be drunk and no one would do anything about it,” Jacks said.
While State Street, and its future, is the talk of the town, Jacks said Santa Barbara has a bright future.
“Santa Barbara is going to be more popular than ever because people are reluctant to travel to the big cities,” Jacks said. “I predict things will really heat up and things will be better in terms of tourism.”
While there’s talk of bringing more housing downtown, Jacks said he hopes that whomever buys the hotel will maintain its current use.
“I would expect that it would remain as a boutique hotel; that would be my expectation,” Jacks said. “The building itself is classic Roman architecture, and I would be very disappointed if someone started knocking out walls in the lobby.”
Robin Elander, president of the Downtown Association of Santa Barbara, said the COVID-19 pandemic has given businesses and owners an opportunity to move around and explore new opportunities. It also has given local businesses an opportunity to expand their operations or move on to things that they have been wanting to do, she said.
“We hope a new owner will be an active participant in collectively building the future of our downtown as we undergo the downtown master planning process,” Elander said. “The iconic Hotel Santa Barbara is in the heart of downtown, and is a great opportunity for an investor who wants to take advantage of a centrally located boutique hotel that is walking distance of restaurants, shops, the beach, and the art and culture of downtown Santa Barbara.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.