An Irish investor who has built a huge development in a formerly rundown part of Cape Town has profited from his vision and investment, writes Joe Humphreys, who mingled with revellers at the launch party.
Some said they were mad - to pour money into a notorious inner city blackspot 6,000 miles from Ireland. But this week Howard Eurocape's investors had the last laugh as they opened their flagship development in Cape Town's now blossoming central business district (CBD). After years of planning, the first phase of the Irish company's €125 million Mandela Rhodes Place was unveiled by Frank Gormley in the presence of local luminaries, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
At a lavish launch party in the building on Monday night, Leitrim-born Gormley, who owns a controlling share of Howard Eurocape, said similar projects were in the pipeline, including "a major scheme" in Cape Town's eastern inner city. Other opportunities are being eyed in rundown parts of Johannesburg and Durban.
The investment is big news locally, with one Cape Town daily paper this week splashing word of the "City's boom with a view" across its front page, as well as praising in an editorial "those who have managed to breathe life into the CBD".
Central to Howard Eurocape's strategy for the area - once a crime-ridden soul-less quarter that would shut down at dusk - has been to try to change local perceptions, and even the launch party was designed with this in mind.
In a stark contrast to dreary CBD nights of old, spotlights danced on the streets and jazz music wafted into the air as the 650 well-groomed guests celebrated until the early hours.
Entertaining the revellers were local personalities, including comedians, DJs and a former Miss South Africa. A bungee-jumper, dangling from the roof of the central atrium, added some colour - as did master of ceremonies Mr Gormley who wore a bright pink jacket and multi-coloured tie, in an apparent personal tribute to the "Rainbow Nation".
Celebrity-watchers may be interested to know that the man who first coined that phrase to describe post-apartheid South Africa didn't stick around at the bash for long. After blessing what he descried as an "incredible edifice", Archbishop Tutu (75) made a quick exit - mingling with the Irish-South African nouveau riche clearly not being his cup of tea.
Other dignitaries at the opening included Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, and representatives of Nelson Mandela, the Nobel laureate who agreed to lend his name to the scheme when construction began in 2004.
Ms Zille, who also paid a visit this week to the annual Cape Town house-building project run by Dublin property developer and philanthropist Niall Mellon, said: "I'm incredibly excited about the commitment of Irish entrepreneurs and philanthropists in the future of Cape Town - and the potential for partnerships. Many of us realised the city's potential, but it needed the vision and the capital injection that the Irish have brought."
Martin Kearns, chief executive of Howard Eurocape's South African arm, said the company's planned mixed-use development in the east city would be "bigger than Mandela Rhodes Place".
An announcement on the project is expected early next year. In the meantime, the company is fishing around for further opportunities. It is soon to open offices in Johannesburg, and this week it invited former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald over to advise on the potential for urban renewal in depressed parts of Durban.
At the launch party, Mr Fitzgerald said there were "a lot of similarities" between Cape Town and Dublin of 15 years ago. "It's all about confidence. If you can generate confidence anything is possible," he said.
Mr Kearns said inner city areas were "where the opportunity lies" in South Africa. However, "it's not for the faint hearted. It's all about picking an area that has potential and doing something with enough of a momentum to generate interest and activity from other developers."
Piecemeal developments were not part of the company's plans, he remarked. "There has got to be a critical mass."
Phase two of the development consists of a neighbouring 174-room five-star hotel, which the Irish-controlled firm is developing with an Indian partner company. Phase three is a large commercial and retail space, also on the same block.
All but eight of the 180 apartments in the first phase of Mandela Rhodes Place had been sold by this week. Mr Kearns, from Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, has himself snapped up a top-floor apartment, and Mr Gormley has one of the three penthouse suites.
About 60 per cent of sales were to residents outside of South Africa, with at least two-thirds from Ireland. Prices ranged from €192,000 for a basic one-bed to €662,947 for a two-bed de luxe. According to Eurocape's letting agents, the units - many of which have views of Table Mountain or Robben Island - have appreciated by over 20 per cent since the first batch was sold off the plans two years ago.
Some 76 of the apartments have been placed in a rental pool that guarantees all participating investors a regular return. Mr Kearns said the rooms were "booked out solidly" for next month - part of South Africa's high tourist season - and he believed demand would strengthen all year round as the "Old Town" began to rival the V&A Waterfront as Cape Town's premier location for visitor accommodation.
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