Locals in one of South Africa's most historic cities are not happy with how a Dubliner is managing his portfolio of around 200 listed buildings there, writes BILL CORCORAN in Port Elizabeth

AN IRISH property investor has become embroiled in controversy in South Africa where he is accused of allowing dozens of protected inner city buildings in Port Elizabeth to fall into disrepair.

Kenneth Denton, from Dublin, has been accused by city councillors and members of the Eastern Cape province city’s heritage trust of flouting the law and ignoring ongoing requests to maintain many of the nearly 200 buildings he owns in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth’s Central Hill district. Port Elizabeth is at the easternmost end of the picturesque Garden Route from Cape Town on South Africa’s southern coast.

Central Hill is South Africa’s second oldest city suburb and dates back to 1820 when 4,000 British settlers arrived by ship from the Cape Colony, now Cape Town, to establish an outpost. Because of their historical and cultural value, a large number of the properties dating back to that period are listed as protected structures.

Terry Herbst, a Democratic Alliance councillor and former ward councillor for Central Hill, said that when Mr Denton first began to buy properties in the area in the late 1990s he was welcomed by locals as he promised to develop them.

However, since then he had allowed many of the buildings – which included apartment blocks, hotels, a former post office and entire streets of houses – to decay to such a point they had become “an embarrassment to the metro”, said Mr Herbst.

“The metro is faced with ongoing decay and many of Denton’s irreplaceable buildings have reached the point of collapse. People walking around the area are faced with buildings with broken windows that are often bricked up and left to rot.

“The local authority has taken no action against this foreign property developer despite the ongoing attempts of many people to get it to act against him,” he added.

Brian Winter Meyer, chairperson of the Mandela Bay Heritage Trust, said Mr Denton was flagrantly disregarding laws under the country’s heritage act, as well as city by-laws, which he said put an obligation on the developer to maintain the buildings to a minimum standard.

“We want Denton to be more responsible; secure the buildings from further decay, and maintain their structural integrity in a manner good enough for the public domain,” he said.

Mr Denton first travelled to Port Elizabeth from Ireland over 10 years ago and began investing in the port city’s properties – which he got at a very competitive price, he says – when few other investors were confident enough in the stability of South Africa’s fledgling democracy to take similar financial risks.

In an interview, Mr Denton, who is the only major foreign investor in the city, argued he was rejuvenating his properties but at a pace that suited him.

He showed The Irish Times over a dozen buildings – including an hotel, apartment blocks and rows of houses, as well as a retail park and business district – he had renovated and redeveloped since arriving in the city.

While he conceded some of his buildings were in disrepair, Mr Denton said he could not be blamed for the local crime and vandalism which led to their current state. He also maintained his renovations were being hampered by a number of issues, including local bureaucracy and market sensitivities.

“We are not allowing it to happen, but we have security challenges as there are continuous risks of break-ins and damage. I can’t take the blame for crime,” he said.

He claimed the redevelopment of his buildings was being hampered in many cases by the Provincial Heritage Resource Authority, which must approve the redevelopment of listed buildings before the work could begin.

“I also need to respond to the market and that means renovating buildings when there is demand for them. But most buildings are operational. We are just taking our time, being careful, so we get things right and finished to a very high standard.

“The value of these buildings are in their old character so it’s in my own interest to refurbish carefully,” he explained.

One solution put forward by interested parties is bringing on board outside developers who could help speed up the process and ensure buildings are in proper order in time for the soccer World Cup in 2010. Port Elizabeth is one of the host cities for the event.

Mr Denton said his properties had increased in value by between 400 and 500 per cent and were worth in total around 1 billion rand (€76 million). When asked if he would sell some of them, he replied he was an investor and had no intention of selling his assets.