Near the corner of Chapala Street and West Mission, construction is underway renovating a church into a 37-unit hotel. It’s something longtime resident Earl Unipan views as a good thing.
"I think we need more hotel space and I know that it's not a short-term hotel, so there won’t be a lot of traffic in it, and I think there’s a real need for that in town," said Unipan.
But neighbor Jill Palmer disagrees, "I wish it were housing. We don’t need more hotels."
Developer Arvand Sabetian heads the Chapala Hotel project and said the site will be kind of a combo between housing and hotel.
"This is going to serve kind of a longer stay type client that's coming to Santa Barbara that might be here for a week, two weeks, as opposed to, you know, super transient, like a night or two," explains Sabetian
Sabetian is passionate about housing but says he chose to build a hotel to keep the original look of the building.
"Structures like this and making it into residential, you're going to need to make a lot of modifications to it to meet all the requirements of the code. Whereas going the hotel route commercial, you can keep the structure mainly the same," continues Sabetian.
Once complete the Chapala Street Hotel will maintain its historic exterior look and will be ready to welcome guests in late 2025.
