Downtown San Diego's historic, 1900s-era Granger Building is being transformed into a new boutique hotel from Oram Properties, the team behind The Guild Hotel.
Located at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, the Romanesque-style Granger Building was built in 1904. Over the years, this storied property has served San Diego as a bank, office space, and even played host to animals in the basement for the San Diego Zoo. The current construction site features graphics of zoo animals, hinting at its unique past.
Originally an office building designed by architect William Quayle for Ralph Granger, a silver mine millionaire, it housed the Merchant’s National Bank and later the Bank of Italy, which eventually became Bank of America. Remarkably, the basement once held zoo animals owned by Dr. Harry Wegeforth, the founder of the San Diego Zoo, as his practice was located there.
The Granger Building has been taken over by Oram Holdings, a family-owned hotel management company operated by Oceanside-natives Alvin and Kevin Mansour. The brothers also own and operate The Guild Hotel in Downtown San Diego and the SpringHill Suites in downtown Oceanside.
Sited only a half mile from The Guild, The Granger Hotel will feature a base floor with entry and lobby and three above stories of hotel rooms and suites. The incoming hotel will house an onsite, European-inspired breakfast concept called 5th & Lox that will be complimentary to guests, as well as a modern beverage program exclusively for hotel guests in the lobby that will feature curated cocktails and classics. The 96-room boutique hotel, which will fully embrace a safari and animal motif in its design and branding, is expected to open by year's end.
The Granger Hotel is anticipated to open this fall at 964 Fifth Avenue in Downtown San Diego. For more information, visit grangerhotel.com.
