Yardi Systems is negotiating with the City of Santa Barbara to move its headquarters downtown to the long-closed former Macy’s building in Paseo Nuevo.
The proposal is in early stages and a final decision will have to be approved by the City Council.
Transforming the old department store at 701 State St. into offices would be a shift from the most recent plan to build housing at the site, at the corner of State and West Ortega streets.
Ben Romo, a spokesman for Yardi Systems, confirmed the Noozhawk tip and said, if approved, the deal could be a big step toward the revitalization of State Street.
“Moving the company headquarters to downtown would have obvious positive benefits in terms of bringing people to State Street and having increased foot traffic,” he said.
No details can be shared while the deal is in negotiations but Romo said that if they go forward, there will be opportunities for the public to learn more and provide feedback.
“We really only want to do this if the city and the community agree that it’s a good thing,” Romo said.
Yardi Systems, a real estate software company, has its current headquarters at 490 S. Fairview Ave. in Old Town Goleta.
While Yardi’s proposal does not include any housing, City Administrator Kelly McAdoo said the city is also negotiating with the owners of the former Nordstrom building at the opposite corner of the open-air mall to turn that building into housing.
Irvine-based Shopoff Realty Investments has applied under the city’s new adaptive reuse ordinance to convert the three-story former Nordstrom department store into 112 housing units of various sizes at the corner of Chapala Street and West Canon Perdido.
McAdoo added that the city hopes to share more information about the Yardi proposal in the coming weeks.
The city has been working with AB Commercial over redeveloping Paseo Nuevo.
In December, the City Council directed the developer — an entity of AllianceBernstein, a Nashville-based global investment company — to come back with a plan to build more affordable housing after an unsatisfied reaction to the proposal for 209 market-rate apartments and 24 affordable housing units at the former Macy’s site.
