theteahousespa

Hello Tea House Spa community-

We need your help. Big developers are planning on demolishing our neighbors, the Catalyst music venue, to build high rise luxury apartments. Our building is physically connected to theirs, and our back wall of our private, historic bamboo garden is their wall.

If demolition goes through, the Tea House Spa would be forced to close.

Our mission is to save the Catalyst from demolition. We need to preserve the Catalyst as a historic, cultural space for Santa Cruz and beyond to enjoy live music for years to come 🤍

The developers are hosting a Zoom meeting tonight at 6pm (Thursday, Jan 29th) to share their plan. Even if the Tea House Spa closes for the demolition process, their plans include 7 stories of apartments that would look directly into our garden and private tub rooms.

Please join us in sharing our concerns to the developers and help us save the Catalyst and the Tea House Spa 🤍🤍🤍

You can voice your concerns about this project via Zoom, or through the City’s website. 
The zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81188549478
Meeting ID 811 8854 9478 or call
669-444-9171

We are the owners of the Tea House Spa and we are second and third generation Santa Cruz locals. The Tea House is not merely a small business to us, it's our passion, livelihood and part of what makes downtown Santa Cruz so special.

The Tea House Spa is home to a Japanese garden that has been here for nearly 80 years. It was planted in the 1940's by a Japanese American and Santa Cruz native, Anne Sunlight. It was her desire after World War II, at a time when fear and division were quite prevalent, to bring people together. Anne opened her garden as a space for peace and healing. Dressed in a kimono, she poured tea and invited neighbors and others who had been interned, to join in conversations about peace, understanding, compassion and healing.

We are extremely grateful and honored to carry on Anne's legacy, continuing what she started, as was our predecessor. Guests come to slow down, exhale and find peace and tranquility. For us, it's not just work, it's something we are proud to share with our community.

Our back garden wall connects directly to the side wall of the Catalyst. With the new proposed plans from developers over the hill to demolish the Catalyst and build another high rise apartment building, our garden and spa would be forced to close. Our hot tub and sauna rooms open to the garden and if an apartment building was constructed where the Catalyst is, the privacy and serenity that make the Tea House so special, will be gone.
Over these past few years we have felt the impact of nearby construction already going on all around us with the noise and dust and fewer guests because of it. There is no way our small business and garden could survive if the current proposed plans go through. If we have to close, our 40 local employees- people who live and raise families here — would also lose their jobs.

We love Santa Cruz. We’ve grown up here, raised our families here, and built our lives around what makes Santa Cruz unique. As locals we understand the growing need for affordable housing, but we also believe in protecting the places and people who give this town its soul.

Please stand with us, and with The Catalyst, to help protect the small, local businesses that make Santa Cruz so special. Our town needs unique destinations like the Catalyst and Tea House Spa for locals and out of town guests, to come and enjoy what Downtown Santa Cruz has to offer. On behalf of the Tea House Spa family we would like to thank our Santa Cruz community for so many incredible years of business. We would love your support by not letting this project go through, so we can continue providing a space of refuge and relaxation for our Santa Cruz community and beyond.

Please join us in signing a petition to save the Catalyst from demolition:

Sign the Petition Save the Catalyst from demolition

Sereni-tea 🙏🏼🌱🫖🤍

Tea time 🫖🌱🤍☺️

Follow the yellow brick road…. Or in this case, yellow trumpet flower road 🌼🌼🌼

The Tea House Spa opened in 1984 to honor the traditional Japanese tea garden that Anne Sunlight, a Japanese American and Santa Cruz native, planted in the 1940s. Anne wanted to create a space that fostered understanding between East and West and served tea while facilitating conversations on how to heal the wounds of the past.

The ancient bamboo bloomed in 2020 and had to be harvested and cut back. While the bamboo regenerates and is starting its life cycle over again, the garden is now seeing an abundance of new growth and new plants.

If you have ever walked by our spa in the mornings there is a good chance you have met this incredible man. Enrique Ortíz Villegas hand waters, feeds, and sings to the plants daily and as you can tell by his smile, takes great pride in his work. Although the garden changes daily, we are proud to be carrying on Anne’s legacy of peace as we care for this space of relaxation, refuge and rejuvenation 🤍🙏🏼🌱🫖

☺️🍵🫖🍵☺️ Mid week exhale

Celebrating a birthday or anniversary? We’d love to host you! Room 1 Experience: Side by side 70 minute massages in our couples room followed by 70 min soak in our Onsen soaking tub and steam shower. Includes tea service 😊🫖🌱😊