A four-star hotel that forms part of a R350-million city development is being built on a man-made hill with views of East London’s Beacon Bay suburbs and Nompumelelo township.
This was revealed exclusively to Saturday Dispatch by Gavin Crisswell, portfolio manager for the SKG Group. The hotel is the centre piece of the Beacon Bay Crossing’s exciting “fourth phase” extension due for completion in two years’ time.
The development fits into a trend of urbanisation eastwards, away from Buffalo City Metro’s East London CBD, said Les Holbrook, director of the Border-Kei Chamber of Business. Holbrook said he anticipated seven years ago Beacon Bay would be the growth point for East London.
“This can be seen by the business confidence in Beacon Bay. We have new residential buildings, office blocks, hospitals, retail, and motor dealers. Developers who took the initiative to buy and develop have been wise and will get good returns. Quite simply, it’s the now place.”
Movie theatres are also planned alongside the four-star, 120-room hotel, as well as an upmarket fresh food supermarket.
SKG is run by East London entrepreneur and developer, Jean du Plessis. Architectural video footage of the hotel portrays a retro-1960s look of curvy lounge suites around a curling column of stairs reminiscent of the spaceship in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 sci-fi film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Crisswell said tenancy in the mall, which has been low in the past, is “suddenly flying”. Only 1500m² is available out of 18500m² on offer. “We always wanted to build something significant and the hotel was our dream.
“A lot of things happened in the market, with a lot of other centres popping up necessitating us taking a back seat. But then the economy slowed down and we thought it was time to build,” he said.
The hotel is depicted with a rooftop pool overlooking the mall’s 1400 new parking bays, and 9000m² of retail space. The retail area will be anchored by the chainstore taking up 3500m². The hotel is aimed at “corporates and government” and is due for hand-over to an unnamed national hotel group on October 20 2017, said Crisswell.
He declined to reveal how much was being invested in adding another 35000m² to the mall, but at a market rate of R10000/m² the group was heading to spend R350-million. Most of the fourth phase will be made up of 20000m² of A-grade office space.
Although earth-moving and cement work had created a new hill and platform on which to build the hotel, there remained the sensitive issue of how to move hundreds of shack residents who have spilled onto the development land from Nompumelelo township.
ANC’s ward 29 councillor, Makhaya Bopi, claimed up to 2000 people living in an estimated 500 shacks must be found new land with “electricity and roads”.
He said shack residents were drawing power from an illegal connection. Last year, meetings were held with the developers, Buffalo City Metro (BCM) and the community, but Bopi said finding the shack people another piece of land “outside of Nompumelelo, with electricity and roads” was the responsibility of Du Plessis.
Crisswell said: “We are in consultation with various role-players to find a solution. Employment and local upliftment is the primary objective in all our developments”.
Beacon Bay Crossing was built in 2009 in the midst of the economic recession caused by the 2008 Wall Street collapse which spread across the globe. Holbrook said he was reliably told that BCM had room for three more hotels.
Holbrook said: “It’s also my opinion that Gonubie will be the next boom area. As soon as the main road is complete by May, we will see unprecedented growth”.
Holbrook said having “squalor and opulence” living side by side was a reality for most African states, but he believed a vibrant community police forum cooperating with township leaders would help achieve long-term harmony.
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This was revealed exclusively to Saturday Dispatch by Gavin Crisswell, portfolio manager for the SKG Group. The hotel is the centre piece of the Beacon Bay Crossing’s exciting “fourth phase” extension due for completion in two years’ time.
The development fits into a trend of urbanisation eastwards, away from Buffalo City Metro’s East London CBD, said Les Holbrook, director of the Border-Kei Chamber of Business. Holbrook said he anticipated seven years ago Beacon Bay would be the growth point for East London.
“This can be seen by the business confidence in Beacon Bay. We have new residential buildings, office blocks, hospitals, retail, and motor dealers. Developers who took the initiative to buy and develop have been wise and will get good returns. Quite simply, it’s the now place.”
Movie theatres are also planned alongside the four-star, 120-room hotel, as well as an upmarket fresh food supermarket.
SKG is run by East London entrepreneur and developer, Jean du Plessis. Architectural video footage of the hotel portrays a retro-1960s look of curvy lounge suites around a curling column of stairs reminiscent of the spaceship in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 sci-fi film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Crisswell said tenancy in the mall, which has been low in the past, is “suddenly flying”. Only 1500m² is available out of 18500m² on offer. “We always wanted to build something significant and the hotel was our dream.
“A lot of things happened in the market, with a lot of other centres popping up necessitating us taking a back seat. But then the economy slowed down and we thought it was time to build,” he said.
The hotel is depicted with a rooftop pool overlooking the mall’s 1400 new parking bays, and 9000m² of retail space. The retail area will be anchored by the chainstore taking up 3500m². The hotel is aimed at “corporates and government” and is due for hand-over to an unnamed national hotel group on October 20 2017, said Crisswell.
He declined to reveal how much was being invested in adding another 35000m² to the mall, but at a market rate of R10000/m² the group was heading to spend R350-million. Most of the fourth phase will be made up of 20000m² of A-grade office space.
Although earth-moving and cement work had created a new hill and platform on which to build the hotel, there remained the sensitive issue of how to move hundreds of shack residents who have spilled onto the development land from Nompumelelo township.
ANC’s ward 29 councillor, Makhaya Bopi, claimed up to 2000 people living in an estimated 500 shacks must be found new land with “electricity and roads”.
He said shack residents were drawing power from an illegal connection. Last year, meetings were held with the developers, Buffalo City Metro (BCM) and the community, but Bopi said finding the shack people another piece of land “outside of Nompumelelo, with electricity and roads” was the responsibility of Du Plessis.
Crisswell said: “We are in consultation with various role-players to find a solution. Employment and local upliftment is the primary objective in all our developments”.
Beacon Bay Crossing was built in 2009 in the midst of the economic recession caused by the 2008 Wall Street collapse which spread across the globe. Holbrook said he was reliably told that BCM had room for three more hotels.
Holbrook said: “It’s also my opinion that Gonubie will be the next boom area. As soon as the main road is complete by May, we will see unprecedented growth”.
Holbrook said having “squalor and opulence” living side by side was a reality for most African states, but he believed a vibrant community police forum cooperating with township leaders would help achieve long-term harmony.
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