It’s a new day for Paseo Nuevo mall.
Kevin Yardi and Brian Cearnal revealed their plans to move 600 Yardi Systems employees into the former Macy’s building at the Historic Landmarks Commission meeting Wednesday.
“We’re excited to move our corporate headquarters into El Pueblo Viejo, into Paseo Nuevo, into the Macy’s building,” said Yardi, senior vice president and global solutions at Yardi Systems. “Really exciting time for us.”
The Santa Barbara City Council approved the plan for Yardi Systems to acquire the former Macy’s building, Parking Lot 1, the in-line shopping center and land underneath at a meeting in June.
The idea is that Yardi employees would revitalize downtown by shopping and eating on State Street and other areas.
The building remodel was redesigned by Cearnal Collective.
“When I first met with Kevin and the Yardi family about this I basically said that this is a reinvention of this building spirit,” Cearnal said at the meeting.
Cearnal explained what was added, what will be fixed and even showed comparison photos of how the building looks now and what it will look like in a few years.
The project will include new windows, balcony and roof, and maintain Santa Barbara’s traditional Spanish architecture.
This was the first time the Historical Landmark Commission saw and reviewed the new building images.
After Yardi and Cearnal both spoke, the commission commented on what they felt should be added or altered.
Commission member Cass Ensberg said the windows looked too repetitive.
“Maybe there could be a little bit more variety in the sizes of the windows,” Ensberg said.
The new building images shown had a big window on the tower of the building and new openings on top. The commission pointed out that they hoped that could be refined.
However, the Spanish-style look is what the commission enjoyed about the building.
“This is a significant improvement in moving the design toward what’s more fitting for the location,” Commissioner Keith Butler said. “It seems I think a much closer pull into what we think of as our Spanish colonial style.”
The Historical Landmark Commission meeting was only a review with no final action being taken.
“The project in general is meeting our design criteria and we are very supportive of it moving forward,” Anthony Grumbine, commission chair, said.
Any recommendations were noted by both Grumbine and Cearnal for the next project design approval.
