SOUTH AFRICA'S CITY LODGE TO OPEN HOTEL IN DAR

A SOUTH African hospitality brand, City Lodge Hotels plans to invest a US$ 22 million (over 36.5bn/-) in Dar es Salaam early next year as part of plans to extend to East Africa.

The South African company said in a statement it had concluded a long-term land lease to develop a 147-room City Lodge Hotel in Dar es Salaam, subject to regulatory approval.

The development is expected to start in the first quarter of 2015. The South African company said in a statement last Friday that it would invest R475m (over 74.3bn/-) in building two new hotels in East Africa, and was looking for other opportunities to add hotels in capital cities across the region.

"We continue to explore additional opportunities in Nairobi as well as Kampala, Uganda. Investigations are also continuing into acquiring suitable sites in Maputo, Mozambique; in Windhoek, Namibia; and Lusaka, Zambia."

City Lodge said in addition to buying the remaining 50 per cent of its Kenyan joint venture, it has made significant progress towards growing its presence in East Africa.

The company had concluded an agreement to buy land in Nairobi for development of a 170-room City Lodge Hotel at a cost of 23 million US dollars.

It expects construction to start in the first quarter of 2015 and to open in mid-2016. City Lodge is still developing in South Africa, where occupancies are beginning to reach more attractive levels for both South African and international hotel chains. City Lodge is developing a 149-room City Lodge Hotel at the Waterfall City precinct in Midrand at a cost of R130m.

The hotel is expected to open in December and be fully operational by February 2015, the statement added. Construction of the company's 90-room Road Lodge Pietermaritzburg "has been delayed", but City Lodge said it expected the necessary approvals to be received for construction to begin in the new financial year.

The company said it had concluded land and building lease agreements for the development of a 148-room City Lodge Hotel at Newtown Junction in the Johannesburg central business district, with construction "expected to commence shortly" and completion scheduled towards the end of 2015. However, the Tanzania Investment Centre said it was unaware of the plans by the City Lodge Hotels.

The TIC Executive Director, Juliet Kairuki said her office has so far not heard from the South African investor. "Checked, nothing in our records unless they operate by a different name," said Ms Kairuki in a written text while responding to reports that the huge project will start in Dar next year. She however said TIC would cooperate with the prospective investor when he shows up.

Daily News