It’s been a huge question looming over a South Coast city for years. What’s going to be done with a vacant department store building in the largest shopping center in Downtown Santa Barbara? We now know the answer. The former Macy’s building in the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center is going to be converted into an office complex.
The Hayes Commercial Group says that the three story, 132,000 square foot building is big enough that it can offer up to 20,000 square foot office suites on each level.
It's now named the Ortega Building. Because of the size of the space, they are marketing it to companies in the Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles which might be considering an Santa Barbara expansion.
Macy’s was one of two anchor stores in the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center. It closed in 2017. Still up in the air is what will happen to the building which housed the other anchor store. Nordstrom closed its Santa Barbara store last summer, one of 16 permanently shut down due to the pandemic.
