Hotelier Goes Indie With Property Started By Father

Headnote

HOSPITALITY: Harbor Blvd. location opens after $14M redo

A former Ramada Inn across Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland Resort is scheduled to debut next month as an independent hotel after a five-year, $14 million renovation with a new name and rooftop views of nightly fireworks shows.

Co-owner Brandon Garr said the Grand Legacy at the Park pays homage to his late father, William Earl Garr Jr., who opened the Saga Inn on the site in 1974.

The elder Garr died in 2004. Brandon started working there in 1997, the year it became a Ramada.

"It's not always easy working with your father, but the education was amazing," he said.

The Ramada deal ended Feb. 1. Garr will save about $500,000 a year by not paying for the name,

He co-owns the hotel with his brother Duke, leases the two parcels of land on which it sits, and runs it via Garr Properties Inc.

New Look, Size, Offerings

The hotel didn't close during renovation. The 4-acre campus is a...