Cape Town - Camps Bay boulevard, with its pavement cafés, bistros and restaurants, is set to get a facelift in the shape of a 100-room hotel that promises to change the look and feel of the beachfront - despite objections from residents and ratepayers.
The hotel, part of the Cape Town-based Novis Hotels, is being pitched as a luxury 5-storey beachfront hotel.
Novis Hotels said: “We are hoping to start construction in May this year and hope to open in September 2024.”
Novis said it had faced opposition at every stage of the project from the Camps Bay and Clifton Ratepayers’ Association (CBCRA) and, as a result, the planning process took five years.
Eventually the mayor had to make the decision to green-light the project.
Novis said: “The residents should welcome the addition of a new 5-star hotel as it can only improve the area and their property prices.”
They said they felt the hotel would be a major benefit to Camps Bay and Cape Town as there weren’t any true beach hotels.
“It will create permanent employment and hopefully bring more tourism as it will have an international brand.”
The proposed hotel was in the news recently when the owner of the Mynt Café said the venue would be closing its doors at the end of the month to allow for the demolition of the building.
Mynt Café owner Theo Pearson said he had known for the past five years the day would come as the company that owns the property had hinted as much.
He said it was not a good situation as his employees would be without jobs, but that as a business owner he respected the circumstances.
As to whether he thought he might have a chance to reopen his business in the new hotel, Pearson said: “It depends on what the hotel’s management decides to do when they open as some hotels are happy to outsource their food and beverage complement.”
In March 2020 the City’s Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT) approved the application for the development. However, Camps Bay residents objected to the proposal, claiming it would have a major impact on the surrounding properties.
CBCRA chairperson Chris Willemse said: “We appealed the MPT’s decision, to approve the application, to the mayor and the appeal was partially upheld insofar as the parking requirements were concerned.”
However, Willemse said that since that time the City’s Development Management Scheme (DMS) had been amended to cater to a lesser parking requirement.
“Consequently, the City approved the plans for this development, without any further reference to the CBCRA or the community, which has opposed the application in great numbers.”
Willemse said the CBCRA remained of the opinion that the development is inappropriate, for many reasons, and is currently considering its legal options.
