The Granger Hotel Gaslamp Quarter, a Member of Design Hotels

The Granger Hotel Gaslamp Quarter opened in December 2024 in the Granger Building, a Romanesque block built in 1904 at 964 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of Broadway. It has 96 rooms, four of them corner suites, and keeps its restaurant and cocktail bar for guests and their invitees only.

The place

The address is 964 Fifth Avenue, in the Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego's historic downtown entertainment district. The street is busy at night: Tacos El Gordo, the Noble Experiment bar and the House of Blues are all close by.

The concept

Ralph Granger, a banker, commissioned the building, and William Quayle designed it in 1904. Its first tenant was the Merchants National Bank, offices and a hotel followed, and before the San Diego Zoo opened in 1916 the basement briefly housed animals under the zoo's founder, Dr. Harry Wegeforth.

The conversion was led by Alvin and Kevin Mansour, brothers from San Diego, with Erika Baker, creative director of Oram Hotels, as lead designer. The original tin ceilings, skylights and tall arched windows were kept, and the corridors still use the building's old doors. Some rooms are studio lofts with handcrafted built-ins and custom rattan armoires, and bathrooms have Italian marble mosaic floors and Le Labo products.

In the lobby hang a vintage painting by Philip North and two murals by Baker and the local muralist Taylor Wilson, one of them a textured plaster piece more than 50 feet long. The palette runs from blush to chartreuse and cerulean, with references drawn from the 1920s to the 1970s. The hotel is a member of Design Hotels, which sits in Marriott's portfolio.

Dining & wellness

5th & Lox serves a full breakfast buffet, and the Parlor Room is the cocktail bar, built around a bar finished in Cristallo glass and a historical nude painting. Both are open to hotel guests and their invitees only, which is unusual on a street where most bars take walk-ins.