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Five months after Humboldt Bay Social Club closed its doors, a new tenant has stepped forward with ambitious plans for operating the unique venue, which is located at the Samoa Air Field and includes a restaurant/bar, indoor/outdoor event spaces and a boutique four-room hotel.

Humboldt Made, a nonprofit member organization focused on cooperative marketing and development for local small businesses, recently signed a lease for the property, which is owned by the City of Eureka, and in a recent interview, Executive Director Rosa Dixon said the plan is to reopen to the public early next year.

Humboldt Made Executive Director Rosa Dixon. | Photo by Ryan Burns.

“Humboldt Made has been looking for a landing spot, which is what we’re calling this: ‘The Landing’,” Dixon said while seated in one of the many chairs arranged amid outdoor grills and fire pits on the tarmac. In addition to the outdoor hangout area, the venue includes a prep kitchen, a licensed bar housed inside an old airport lobby and a renovated plane hangar that can be rented for weddings and other events.

Dixon said it will also give the organization’s 180 members (“and growing”) a place to organize, network and show off their wares. [DISCLOSURE: The Outpost’s parent company, Lost Coast Communications, is a member of Humboldt Made.]

“We needed a space that we can call our own and support our makers and our artists and our community,” Dixon said, adding, “We want it to be a cooperative space.”

The organization also needed a revenue source. Unlike other local nonprofits and chambers of commerce, Humboldt Made doesn’t have a steady income; its members pay annual dues of just $120 to $250, according to Dixon. Humboldt Made has just two part-time employees — Dixon being one of them — and a 12-member board of directors that “does a lot of work” to keep things humming.

The vision for The Landing, Dixon explained, includes pop-up dining events that highlight local food producers as well as artist workshops and live performances while also providing a gathering space for the community and the organization’s members.

“We’re going to have free Wi-Fi and workstations for any of our members that just need to come out and have a quiet place to work,” Dixon said.

The City of Eureka, meanwhile, is grateful to have a new tenant for the property. The Humboldt Bay Social Club, which opened in 2017, came to a messy end earlier this year after owner Nicole Fryer, who’d purchased the business in 2024, stopped paying rent and fought the city’s eviction efforts.

As this drama was winding down, city staff approached Humboldt Made with a proposal to take it over. Dixon was more than amenable. She’d been looking for a physical location — something more than just an office — since shortly after she became executive director in October 2024. She, her small staff and working board of directors explored a few possibilities, but nothing quite felt right.

“Humboldt Made has this unique vision for what we’ve wanted, and I feel like the city really saw that,” Dixon said. “We started talking and brainstorming, and we already partner on Friday Night Market with them, and they’ve been such amazing partners.”

Still, Dixon wasn’t immediately sold on the idea. Her vision for a physical space didn’t include operating an event venue, much less a four-room inn. But she started thinking about the possibilities, including wintertime Friday Night Markets, small business Saturday pop-ups and outdoor dinner parties where guests are served at an extremely long dining table on the decommissioned airport’s runway.

Dixon took the proposal to her board, which was in full support of the move, she said.

While The Landing won’t open to the general public until at least January, special event rentals have already begun. Last weekend, the facility hosted participants in the Overcrest Rally, a multi-day, untimed “driving adventure” that brings car enthusiasts from across the country to a different location each year. (When we interviewed Dixon, a trio of Porsches was parked at one end of the lobby bar and a cherry-red Mercedes convertible was at the other end. Inside, Overcast personnel commiserated about their current driving adventure and raved about some of their favorite local discoveries, including “a restaurant that only serves pie”: Humboldt Sweets.)

Dixon said The Landing will likely have limited hours for the public — probably two nights and one brunch per week — plus periodic special events, rental availability for weddings, birthday parties and the like and year-round hotel operations. The bar will be stocked with locally distilled spirits, and in addition to the onsite kitchen (whose sub-lessee has not yet been confirmed), food trucks may also be invited to serve onsite. Dixon said local oysters will likely be made available for outdoor grilling — just like at the Social Club — at least one night a week.

The limited hours are designed to enhance operations, she said.

“We want to make sure that every night we are open, it’s something really spectacular and really amazing, and a lot of energy and intention is going into that,” Dixon said.

Olivia Gambino, the Kinetic Rutabaga Queen and events coordinator behind this year’s Friday Night Markets in Eureka and Arcata, will manage The Landing.

“Her energy and her vision are what make me feel really confident this is going to be successful,” Dixon said.