Magic Castle Founder Buys Former Café del Sol Property

In its foreseeable future, the Montecito Events Center will transform into an offshoot of Hollywood’s famed nightclub The Magic Castle, announced club founder Milt Larsen, who recently purchased the 30 Los Patos Way property for $2.35 million with his wife, Arlene Larsen. For now, the Montecito Events Center — whose 3,982-square-foot building housed Café del Sol for nearly 50 years and, briefly, Warren B’s event center — will keep hosting parties that overlook the Andree Clark Bird Refuge. The property occupies 11,761 square feet.

Milt and his now-deceased brother Bill Larsen founded The Magic Castle back in 1963 after a childhood spent traveling and performing music with their parents in the 1930s. The niche interest, members-only nightclub draws magicians and magic aficionados for shows and cocktails late into the night inside its Victorian mansion walls, as Independent senior editor Matt Kettmann reported three years ago.

Steve Hayes and Michael Martz, partners at Hayes Commercial Group, represented the seller, according to a press release from the real estate brokerage. Joe Parker of the Santa Barbara Group represented the Larsens, who live in Santa Barbara.