Doug Manchester

Douglas Frederick Manchester (born June 3, 1942) is an American businessman and philanthropist.

He is the former chairman of Manchester Financial Group, past chairman and publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune, and an unsuccessful nominee to become United States Ambassador to the Bahamas.

Manchester, who prefers to be called "Papa Doug", has built some of the tallest hotels and office buildings in San Diego, including the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina and the Manchester Grand Hyatt, and is credited as a driving force behind the development of the San Diego Convention Center.

He graduated in 1965 with a B.S. in Business.

After graduating from college, Manchester went into real estate.

He founded the Manchester Financial Group in 1970.

Eventually he became known for developing large, upscale projects.

In addition, he founded two banks, the La Jolla Bank and Trust Company (1973) and La Jolla Pacific Savings Bank (1984).

In the 1980s, Manchester built a 27-story office tower called the Columbia Centre, now known as the First National Bank Center, and the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina.

In the 1990s, he constructed the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel San Diego.

He subsequently sold both hotels to Host Hotels & Resorts.

He also built The Fairmont Grand Del Mar luxury resort.

His financial support for a 2008 California constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage resulted in some calls for a boycott of his hotels.

He was an early financial supporter of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and donated $1 million to the inauguration.

His subsequent nomination as ambassador to the Bahamas was controversial and was eventually withdrawn.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Manchester grew up in Coronado, California and the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego, where his father managed an apartment building.

He attended La Jolla High School where he played football.

He then went to San Diego State College (now University), where he was a member of Sigma Chi and worked as a campus representative for an insurance company.

In 2011, Manchester bought The San Diego Union-Tribune from Platinum Equity.

In 2012, he bought the North County Times and merged it and its subsidiary, The Californian, into the Union-Tribune.

In November 2013, he bought eight local weeklies in the San Diego region, which continue to be published as separate papers.

Manchester also built the triple 5-star Grand Del Mar Resort & Spa, which was sold to Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in 2015, and he maintains a minority ownership.

Manchester also built the Torrey Executive Centre, Manchester Financial Building, Whitetail Lodge and Golf Club, Fairmont Austin and is currently building the Manchester Pacific Gateway.

Manchester is a longtime supporter of conservative causes and Republican candidates.

The resort was sold to Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and investor Richard Blum in 2015.

In 2015, Manchester sold The San Diego Union-Tribune to the Tribune Publishing Company after selling the building for redevelopment.

As of 2017, Manchester was chairman of Landmark Construction Company of San Diego; Torrey Executive Centre; M Resorts, Inc.; Manchester Fifth Avenue Financial LP; Cloverleaf Media, LLC; Manchester Foxhill LLC; Manchester Pacific Gateway, LLC; La Jolla Reserve, LLC; Manchester Grand Hotels, LP; The Grand Del Mar, LLC; Manchester 484 Prospect, LLC; and Torrey Hotel Enterprises, Ltd. He was manager of 101 MPG, LLC; MLIM Holdings, LLC, and Manchester Texas Financial Group LLC.

He also had major holdings in Brookfield Asset Management, Disney, Apple, Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart, Ford, tronc, and Pfizer.

He is the sole owner of M Resorts, Inc., M Investments, LLC, Manchester Lyford Ltd, and Summit Apogee Investments.

The Washington Post has noted that Manchester "has a hand in dozens of other businesses, including biotechnology, mortgage receivables, and television and movie productions."

Manchester built the 595-foot-tall, 1,066 room Fairmont Austin Hotel, in Austin, Texas completed in 2018, and the Manchester Pacific Gateway, located on the waterfront in downtown San Diego.

His activities have helped to revitalize the San Diego downtown waterfront.

Manchester was a major influence in persuading the city of San Diego to build the San Diego Convention Center.

Manchester and his company, Manchester Financial Group, also played a major role in transforming Navy Field and San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter into tourist destinations.

It was reported in May 2018 that Manchester was "about to install his latest and largest implant on San Diego yet," namely the Pacific Gateway project, "a massive redevelopment of the Navy Complex at the foot of Broadway in downtown San Diego."

Lori Weisberg at The San Diego Union-Tribune described it as "the single largest and costliest project in downtown San Diego history."

Covering 3 million square feet and eight blocks of urban oceanfront, the project will include a 17-story Navy headquarters; three office towers, respectively 29, eight, and six stories high; a retail "paseo"; an 1100-room convention hotel; a 260-room luxury boutique hotel; a museum; a park; and a pedestrian walk along the entire length of the site.

In 2018, The Washington Post reported that during his four years as the owner of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Manchester "employed an unconventional, anachronistic management style that upended the newspaper's culture and made many female workers uncomfortable."

According to the Post and the Daily Aztec, "several female staffers" came forward to claim that Manchester "required some female staffers to wear short black dresses and serve as hostesses for advertisers and other guests."

John Lynch, who was chief executive of the Union-Tribune under Manchester's tenure, claimed that "one woman received a small settlement after complaining about unwanted hugs from Manchester."