One of Santa Barbara’s most treasured senior communities is getting a new home.
Friendship Manor, an affordable senior living center in Isla Vista, plans to move to Santa Barbara after over 50 years in Isla Vista. In late June, Friendship Manor purchased property on 711 North Milpas Street from Capital Hardware, a hardware and home materials store.
The senior living center plans to move to the upper Milpas location by 2029, said Eva Turenchalk, a board member for Friendship Manor and land use planner for the project.
But Friendship Manor still needs approval from the city to obtain a planning permit for the project, Turenchalk told the News-Press, and more time to eventually get a building permit.
Some residents are excited for the move, but others believe time is of essence for them to live through the transition.
Resident Ron Rakow, 88, who has been with Friendship Manor for 10 years, said he may not make it to see the relocation of the center to Santa Barbara.
“I could be as good as dead in three years,” Rakow said. “And who’s to say it’s going to take three years.”
Rakow from the senior living center has enjoyed how close Friendship Manor is to bus stops and the ocean in Isla Vista for the last decade.
But the move was long overdue as the building has aged and maintenance issues have become a recurring issue for residents, he said.
Jill Des Baillets, 80, said her sink had overflowed after an upstairs neighbor plunged their toilet in the senior resident building. She added the building had lead pipes, and that residents have to get their water from the center’s communal kitchen.
At over 200 rooms, the Isla Vista senior living center stopped accepting residents in July in preparation for the move, Turenchalk said.
The “natural attrition” of residents, Turenchalk said, will make space for the new location on upper Milpas. The location will have 158 rooms.
The new building will provide a shared kitchen for seniors, similar to what the Isla Vista location offered.
Friendship Manor moves on from Isla Vista
The Friendship Manor building in Isla Vista was originally made as dorms for UC Santa Barbara students.
But since the early 70s, the building has provided independent living for seniors among a majority population of college students in Isla Vista.
While the center provides housing and meals for residents, it does not include assisted living or medical care like other places in South County.
Senior centers like Vista del Monte Retirement Community and Pilgrim Terrace in Santa Barbara are affordable for low-income residents, similarly to Friendship Manor, said Rob Fredericks, executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara.
Back in Isla Vista, Rakow said he and other residents at the senior living center are “old and in the way,” and due to the building’s poor conditions it would be easiest for them and the center to move altogether.
Resident Des Baillets also shared a similar sentiment to Rakow, and said that in three years “half of us won’t be around.”
‘Never about the money’
For Alan Bleecker, owner of Capital Hardware, Friendship Manor had a “special place” in his heart long before he sold his property to them.
Bleecker’s father had lived at the senior living center before he died, making the decision to sell to Friendship Manor a “vested interest” of Bleecker’s.
“It was especially exciting for me from the first phone call,” said Bleecker about his initial interaction with the senior living center. “When I found out my father had prostate cancer in Northern California, I decided to move him from Santa Cruz to Friendship Manor.”
But Bleecker said it was “never about the money,” but more as a way to honor his father-in-law who he bought the Capital Hardware property from after his death.
Bleecker had been trying to develop on the upper Milpas site for 16 years, and recently had an 82-unit apartment complex approved for the location.
In October 2025, however, Turenchalk from Friendship Manor reached out to Bleecker showing interest in his property. Bleecker decided not to move forward with the 82-unit project, and eventually sold the location to the senior living center in June.
He added that Friendship Manor had sold their adjacent parking in Isla Vista to buy the hardware store property.
While the property was bought by Friendship Manor, planning and building for the relocation of the senior center has not been finalized.
Nonetheless, Bleecker was hopeful and wanted to see his property get used in “the right way.”
“The state needs housing, and the city needs senior housing,” Bleecker said. “So I don’t think we could go wrong.”
Capital Hardware will relocate to a nearby plumbing store also owned by Bleecker.
After many years of searching for a new place for Friendship Manor, Turenchalk said she is waiting to get approval from the city for the new location. She added the construction could start next spring for the building to be ready by 2029.
“We really think this is going to be a benefit for our residents,” Turenchalk said.
