The El Granada Building located across from UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza has been owned by the same family for more than a century, but as of last month, it has been up for sale along with two adjacent properties.

Although Munger Properties, the owner of the building and the adjacent properties, will not disclose the details surrounding the sale, they do not expect the transaction to affect the businesses located on the properties.

"(The business community is) not going to change one little bit," said Tamsen Munger, the wife of the late Edward Munger, whose family has owned the properties since the El Granada Building was first built in 1904. "We would never do anything to jeopardize the way that those businesses are run."

The El Granada Building houses American Apparel, Yogurtland and Chipotle, among other businesses and the apartments above them. Additionally, Munger Properties owns the two properties where Cafe Milano and Adidas are located, all near the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way.

According to Jim Frassetto, the real estate lawyer for the Munger family, the businesses on the properties can remain as long as their leases allow.

Regardless of who buys the properties, businesses like the Jamba Juice located in the El Granada Building will have a right to operate in the building until 2013, when their leases expire, said Janice Duis, the director of corporate communications for Jamba Juice.

"We don't have any plans to move," she said. "(Moving) typically doesn't occur when there is a change in ownership."

Frassetto said he is not able to disclose who is buying the property due to the confidentiality of the transaction, but he added that the Mungers did not have any confirmed purchasers for the properties before they put it up for sale.

"Who the hell knows?" he said "You put it up on sale. You never know what comes in."

Roland Peterson, executive director of the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District, said he also does not expect there to be significant changes to the businesses on the properties, although he does believe Sandy Boyd, the owner of Cafe Milano, may purchase the property from the Mungers.

"There's just going to be a new landlord," Peterson said.

Boyd could not be reached to confirm whether he is trying buy the property.

Even though the properties lie across the street from campus, Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley executive director of public affairs, said the campus is not interested in purchasing them because either they are not suitable for campus needs or they are not fairly priced.

"We just don't buy properties because they're available," he said. "(The property) has to measure up ... in terms of what the campus needs."

From witnessing the gradual expansion of the UC Berkeley campus, the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, and a $2 million renovation in 1995, the El Granada Building has seen a slew of changes since it was first built in 1904 by Edward Munger's grandfather.

Tamsen Munger believes the building has enjoyed a successful longevity because it has been well-maintained by the Mungers for three generations. She said that the family has maintained the security of the building and that it is seismically retrofitted.

"We've always felt as if it is a major part of our family, and we treated it that way," she said. "We treated it as a house that we lived in."

Lately, part of the building's success has come in the form of corporate chains, such as Volcom and Chipotle, which opened in 2007 and 2006, respectively.

Dave Fogarty, the city's economic development project coordinator, believes the high amount of foot traffic in the surrounding area attracts corporate chains to the building.

"Corporate chains like areas of very high foot traffic and can also afford to pay high rents," he said. "And that corner on Bancroft and Telegraph has the highest foot traffic in the East Bay."

Tags: TELEGRAPH, TELEGRAPH AVENUE