Transforming Retail Office Into Private Vault Storage

Refuge Vault Co. Offers Safe Deposit Boxes to Affluent Clientele

Originally Featured in the San Diego Business Journal on June 5, 2025

DEL MAR – Refuge Vault Company has broken ground on a 1,200-square-foot Del Mar project that will provide safe deposit boxes in a variety of sizes and secure storage rooms for affluent and high-net-worth individuals.

Due to open this summer, the private storage company’s services are meant to replace those formerly provided by banks.

Daniel Schroeder
Founder
Refuge Vault Company

“If you kind of look around, there aren’t really that many banks that have safe deposit boxes and the ones that do, in most cases, have a waiting list,” said Daniel Schroeder, a founder of Refuge Vault.

“I’ve seen how the industry has evolved and there’s been a major push toward digital banking and reducing services and staff,” Schroeder said. “I have a number of clients that want safe deposit boxes and can’t find them, including my family.”

Schroeder’s background is in banking, having worked as a managing director for First Republic Bank and executive director of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“I’ve worked in the banking and wealth management industry for 22 years,” Schroeder said, adding that he was always fascinated by the concept of storing valuables in safe deposit boxes.

Transforming a former retail office suite into Refuge Vault cost about $1 million, according to Schroeder.

“We had to remove the concrete slab foundation from beneath where the vault was going to go because it wasn’t strong enough,” Schroeder said, adding that the new flooring has an 18-inch-deep concrete flooring reinforced with 6,000 feet of rebar.
“It will be able to support the weight of the panels of the vault and it’s also part of the security system, so it would be impossible for someone to burrow into the vault,” Schroeder said.

Safe and Secure

Designed by Convergint, with San Diego offices in Kearny Mesa, the vault takes up about 600 square feet of Refuge Vault’s office.

It will also include three storage rooms, about the size of a closet, for artwork or other large valuables.

Security systems will include seismic sensors, biometric scanning, and interlocking doors to enter the office in which someone passes through one door and must be cleared to enter the office through a second door.

Clients will receive two keys that can’t be duplicated.

Refuge Vault will be monitored night and day and will be accessible to clients by appointment only and only one client will be allowed in at a time.

“We’re trying to make it as secure and safe for clients as possible while, at the same time, not be intimidating,” Schroeder said. “It’s a fine balance to find.”

Contact: 858-252-2750; info@refugevault.com
Notable: The team behind Refuge Vault has spent more than 50 years in the banking industry