By Eric Curl
Aug. 26, 2022 update – The Savannah City Council on Thursday voted to approve the text amendment allowing for the building’s conversion back into a hotel.
July 25, 2022 – About 37 years after it was converted into an office building, the historic Manger building overlooking downtown Savannah’s Johnson Square may be returning to its roots.
A proposal going before the Metropolitan Planning Commission on Tuesday would amend the city’s zoning ordinance to allow for the restoration and conversion of the building into a hotel, as the structure was used for much of the 20th century.
The subject ordinance restricts hotels to designated areas in the Hotel Development Overlay District, which the city established to guide the size and location of hotel development within the downtown Historic District. The overlay district distinguishes large hotels (75 guest rooms or more) and small hotels (16-7 rooms). Hotel locations are further restricted by street and must be located on one of the streets or lanes identified on the map.
The building’s owner, Manger Building, LLC, an offshoot of South Carolina-based Ziff Real Estate Partners, recently requested an amendment to the overlay district map to include portions of Bull and Congress Street fronting the Manger building, according to the MPC staff report. The request was to allow the building to be restored and re-established as a hotel after previously operating as such from 1912 through 1977.
Rather than adding the street sections to the overlay district, MPC staff recommended including an additional condition of the ordinance that allows for a re-establishment of a historic hotel within the overlay district. The amendment, which the petitioner agreed to, applies only to contributing buildings that were converted from hotels to another use within a designated “period of significance” from 1733-1960.
The Manger Hotel was once Savannah’s “finest place for hospitality, with the city’s first fully air-conditioned guest rooms and the rooftop Purple Tree Lounge,” according to Gunn, Meyerhoff and Shay, the design firm that designed and oversaw the building’s conversion into an office building in 1985.
In addition to the Manger building, there is only one other historic building located within the overlay district that meets this criteria. MPC staff found that the building at 21 West Bay Street, where Moon River Brewing Company is located, was constructed in 1821 as a the City Hotel. However, the building is already permitted for re-establishment as a hotel due to its location on Bay Street – one of the streets where hotels are permitted.
The MPC meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The meetings are now open to in-person attendance, but the public may also access the meeting virtually by registering via the meeting’s registration page when it is available.
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