Old Pasadena’s Jamba Juice Innovation Bar Shuttered, Location Closes Its Doors for Good

The ambitious Innovation Bar by Jamba Juice that opened last July and served as a research lab for employees to experiment with new food and beverage concepts and receive real-time feedback from customers officially closed it doors after less than a year in operation.

The Innovation Bar was located on the high traffic corner of Raymond and Colorado in Old Pasadena and was the original site of store number 19 of the 870+ Jamba Juice retail locations nationwide.

“Our Pasadena Innovation Bar closed on January 3. After opening our Whirl’d Support Center in Frisco, Texas in October, we have determined that the Innovation Lab in Frisco is the best place to continue our menu Research and Development,” according to an email statement from Jamba Juice Brand Manager Marta Danylyk.

The Innovation Bar was the company’s first of its kind concept store that featured a menu that included items never seen before at Jamba Juice, such as southwestern style quinoa bowls, artisan hummus toast with vegetables, homemade sweet potato chips and presses juiced, according to Pasadena Now’s earlier report.

The company also planned to move its headquarters from Emeryville, California to Frisco, Texas to reduce costs, retain talent and provide a more central location for potential expansion, according to a report.

Specifics about the Pasadena store’s performance during its approximate six month run were not provided by Jamba Juice as a reason for the relocation.

For now, the high-traffic corner space that underwent a ten month renovation by Jamba’s creative team to construct a loft space with high ceilings and a contemporary design as seen by mirrored photographic wall art and installed LED screens is still in the hands of Jamba Juice.

“Space does not tend to stay open here very long. Normally there is something rolling in right behind it. Jamba Juice still holds that lease. It would be finding a subtenant and I don’t know what actions have been taken between the property broker and Jamba Juice,” explained Old Pasadena Management District President and CEO Steve Mulheim.

Just months after launching the store in 2016, Jamba Juice announced its plans to abandon “JambaGo,” its automated self-service platform which debuted in 2011 as a to-go smoothie making system for nontraditional locations such as universities and hotels.

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, the JambaGo platform did not fit in with the company’s overall goals.

“We will continue to be a proud member of the Pasadena community, as we have been for more than 20 years, and look forward to serving our loyal Pasadena customers at our East Pasadena and South Lake stores,” explained Danylyk.

The Innovation Bar stores are company owned unlike most which are franchise owned and operated, according to Jamba Juice.