The corridor along Tahquitz Canyon Way between Palm Canyon and Indian Canyon drives has always been a happening spot — the very center of Downtown Palm Springs. But it has also seen a lot of businesses come and go and some storefronts often sit empty for unbearably long stretches of time.
A new business that opened Thursday afternoon is now filling a key corner spot at the entrance to that corridor, and there’s news that one of the most loved businesses in the area will be there for a good long time, where plans were once in place to replace it.
Driving the news: Oscar’s, the lively hotspot famed for its Sunday T-dance and often packed for everything from musical performances to drag shows, has reportedly signed a new, 20-year lease and has plans to expand.
- Just last year the owners of the building Oscar’s is housed in, Grit Development, were planning to develop a hotel at the site. A pool would have gone where Oscar’s popular outdoor dance floor is located.
In addition to that news, the doors were flung open Thursday afternoon at nearby Out West Trading Company. The latest location for a chain that offers high-quality tourism-related clothing and handcrafted goods is now open on the northeast corner of Palm Canyon and Tahquitz.
- That storefront is located at one of the busiest intersections in the city. It’s a spot that has sat vacant for what seems like forever after a coffee and tea shop vacated the space.
- It’s just a few doors down from a new bookstore that opened the week of Thanksgiving, and within earshot of Oscar’s.
But wait: We’ve been getting a few questions about whether there’s an update on the Agua Caliente Cultural Center, located kitty-corner from Oscar’s at the intersection of Tahquitz and Indian Canyon. We ran into some tribal officials at a recent event and can tell you there’s nothing new to report since we last wrote about the project earlier this year.
- “I promise we are coming soon, even though I don’t have an actual date for it yet,” Agua Caliente Director of Public Relations Kate Anderson said last March, adding that it could be open in Spring 2023.
