http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf1c.JPG
http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf3c.JPG
http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf7c.JPG

NAME: San Raphael
LOCATION: the point, Durban
STATUS: U/C
FLOORS: 35
HEIGHT: 134 m
USE: Residential with retail

This tower is set to be the newest landmark for Durban. Situated in Durban's Point Waterfront alongside uShaka Marine World, it has an unrivalled location with panoramic views. San Raphael is situated at the harbour entrance end of a strip of properties along Point Road which are destined to re-create Durban's skyline at the Point. The harbour entrance facing apartments boast 270° unobstructed views while the remaining apartments enjoy both sea and harbour views.

WOW, it looks so beautiful!!!!! I like that twisty design!

my fav building that is going up in SA at the moment. It is in the demolition phase of construction. but in this phase they have to be ultra careful, for part of the site contains the alexandra hotel, which is a national monument. The building is to be combined as part of the finished San Raphael...it is the "ole worlde" part u can see on the point road side. Will add a nice touch to the building, combining old (1906) with modern...100 years apart

I get chills every time I look at that first picture. Amazing... it's so graceful. Could you snap us some construction pictures soon? :)

well...there is nothing happening. it is def not u/c yet! the site has no contractors on it

more pics

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf8c.JPG

above: The victorian building is over 100 years old and forms the base of the dev. The glass section to the right of the pic is the 5 star hotel component


http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf6c.JPG

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf5c.JPG

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf4c.JPG

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf%20location%20cc.JPG

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/san%20raf%20site%20cc.JPG

Typical apartment design

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/type%20A%20cc.JPG

SIMPLY AWESOME!

someone has bought 2 apartments on the 27th and 28th floors and is converting them into one massive unit with an internal staircase, 4 beds, 5 baths, 2 lounges...over 700m2 of space....can u imagine the value of the place if each apartment was R4,5m...so thats R9m, but i'm sure that it will be much much higher than that! WOW

No dev on site still!!! getting annoyed having to wait!!!

Question: are the flats just empty shells then-build to suit?

Im surprised that no demolition works have started as my mate who is the development manager said late July. Ill contact himn to see what the story is, might have to do with the additional floors they added.

I'm sure it is to do with the additional floors and probably also because it is incorporating the listed building, so plans have to also go through the heritage commission!

Nick: Apartments come fully fitted as part of the price. All built in appliances, tiling, carpeting....you just add your furniture!

Thanx :) Yah thats cool. Def. a good way to go....(well not nec. good, but cheaper). At 100 Gold Lofts here, (OMG I would KILL to live there) the have 1300sf flats that are empty shells-build to suit going for 332,000 USD.....or R 1.9 million! Of course they ARE custom.......but still. So I assume most apts. in Durbs are already semi-furnished?

almost all new apartments included all fitted appliances. you get to chose ur own fittings but from a list that is approved by the developer. all part of purchase price

(I can't stop thinking about this building haha!!! I really have grown to like it!)

all i can say what a skyline north beach to the point ....cant the start building it already

Well well well boys! Guess i now know why it has taken so long for dev on this building to start. They had to redesign it when the expansion took place and have also altered the composition of the building.

New floor format:

Ground: Retail, Restaurant
1F - 4F: Parking
5F - 10F: New 1 and 2 bed units (8 per floor)
11F - 35F Same as Before (two 3 beds per floor)

new total apartments = 95

And work starts in OCTOBER! YEY!!!!

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/San%20Raph.%20Advert.jpg

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/Floors%205-10%20EMAIL.jpg

i can tell you're excited!
I'm just glad about the construction date! Cha-ching!!! ;)


They didn't change the exterior design/ outward appearance of the building, though, did they? Because they have a bunch of new renderings up on the website and the base looks fatter and less coherent than before...

EDIT: I have looked again and again and now I realize (by comparison) that some little changes have been made to the design... :( I am pretty sure, although maybe the views are a bit different. Eitehr way, I am still worried! The renderings on the website seem to show the tower differently in every picture...


http://files.photojerk.com/andrewharv/sanraphael.jpg
-

With the top floors' stylistic features removed, the design looks heavyweighted towards the bottom, and I am really disappointed in the company behind it.

Buildings and height aren't enough to satisfy me- i need good design, too.

they have reduced the number of the double volume penthouses, for they werent popular. that lead to the redesign of the top section and made it more incorporated with the rest of the building. therefore only the top 2 floors remain different.

HOWEVER, dont judge the changes on the one picture. the angle in that picture is not like any angle we have ever seen of the building before, so there is no frame of comparison.

PERSONALLY, i prefer the new rendering, for it makes the design more bold and gives it a stronger presence than before. Now it is more dramatic and powerful.

dont forget that the side of the building features (to the left side of the building unseen in the new render) remain exactly the same.

Actually, they are taken from the exact same point of view, as you can see the same refinery-like tanks to the left bottom of the building.

But, I still like the building alot... I'm just a little disappointed. ;)

oh well...some will like (like me) and others wont. they did what they did for reasons. Obviously moneytary...they will make bucket loads more now that there are 1 and 2 beds included. They are being put into the hotel rental pool if people dont want to live in them, and will all get a fixed return.

In most ways i like the design more now

Good for you ;)

Well I shall return upon construction pictures in October :)

Ok, so they have altered the design of the building to cater for more 1 and 2 bed apartments.

Here's what it will now look like. Decide for yourselves how u feel.

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/SaR%201.JPG

http://www.myimagehub.com/userfiles/dysan1/SaR2.JPG

bring it on already, Im gettting tired of waiting . we want cranes!!!

1 OCTOBER and the cranes will start to arrive :)

awesome. this one is going to be amazing!

hehe.....we're like little kids waiting for Christmas!! :)

Look simply stunning. Took a drive around the point last week while on study break in Durbs - the entire area is going to be something special when it's finished, would be my first choice area if I ever move back to Durban.

Good to see the old hotel (The Alexandra I think???) will be included in the new design.

yeh, the Alexandra hotel. Its 125years old or something. the only way the dev was allowed to proceed was by making it as a feature of the dev!

The atmosphere is going to be great. And 2 more projects are coming on stream shortly.

2 more? tell us more, are they in the tower corridor?

Nope they are overlooking Timeball Square.

One is called "Centre Point" and has 100 apartments, plus groundfloor retail and 1st floor commercial space.

The other is "Rondo" and is between one point one seven and the ilanga offices. It has 25 apartments and groundfloor retail.

With regards San Raphael...they are erecting the fencing around the site now :)

bring on the piling rigs

they are on the way!!! and the building next door to San Raphael has been fenced off too....something on the way there we dont know about? hmm....

pics pics pics

will pics up soon! they have demolished alot of the buildings on the San Raphael site...construction must be soon soon soon

Ok so this pic aint that much, or that special, but it shows that the site is now fenced off and demolition of the crappy buildings has started!

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/04-11-2005007.jpg

Construction Update - 29 November 2005

All is nearly destroyed on the site...hopefully it will start to rise in Jan or Feb

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/IMGP0731.jpg

out of the old will rise the new

The empty site...waiting...

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/IMGP0979.jpg

lets get the piling rigs in already

yes the waiting game is getting rather tiring

anyone been down there lately to see whats up?

Yeah would like to see the progress of this..

I took a drive the last time, past this site, but nothing so far

Anything?

i was there a few weeks ago and nothing, its a pity cos spinaker is realy motering ahead and it would have looked great to see a few towers rising together

that building is quite beautiful

I hope they start soon, cos this is gona be the "jewel of the point"

the guys from apartment box who are the agents for both the spinakker and san raphael said that work on it is about to start. but they have been saying that for months. they stressed that it would def be before xmas.

Spinakker will be ready next july!

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/san_raphael_05.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/san_raphael_01.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/san_raphael_02.jpg

wooah its going to be huge ....i mean compared to whats next to it at the moment just imagine how the other highrise is going to look like the 153m one

Nice pic looking across the bay - thanks for posting. The views from this are going to be stunning!

and there are only 3 announced out of 10 sites so it will continue the wall of 20F+ towers from the addington area almost to the end of the harbour. Imagine a future long pano shot from the container terminal showing a ring of towers from Albert park to the point
Awesome

Will be real cool in time! The Mast will be right next to this development (their lower levels are touching each other, wall to wall). The paper announced today that the Mast will start construction next week. So seems it will rise before this one! But will be a sight to see a 35F and 40F rising at the same time next to each other with only the Spinakker being a high rise nearby.

its quite strange that SR was actually the first of the towers announced and the last to start. Anyways durbsn hasent had 2 20F+ tower rising in such close proximity since 1985 when Monte blanc/mallington and maluti all went up at the same time.
20 years is to long to wait for something like this

^^yeh for sure!

Spinakker was actually the first to be announced, a good few months before SR, but it is true that this one has taken forever to get out of the ground!

is it all sold out?

yea it was the mast soon 2 be the tallest building in durbs

How many floors is that Dlophins whisper's?

12 from what i remember...why not check its own thread?

I was too lazy :D

birdy told me that this has fallen through, its a pity cos it was stunning

Isn't it rising now? What do you mean the project "fell through"???!?!

Fallen thru how? a mate of mine works for the team behind it and has not said a thing. My dad bought a place in it and has not heard its been stopped.

These reason for the slow work is that they are in trouble with the heritage council for demolishing an historic building on site, and hence work was not allowed to proceed. other than that we have not been told anything else

i was offered the site for one of our developments as it has apparently not got off the ground. I belive the developers cannot meet the deadline to start construction and therefore will default on the deal.

Dont know much more except what I have been told, sorry mate

NOOOOO this cant be happening, what historic site? fuck that shit, we need high rise & we need it now!

And their website is down...No dammit NO!!! :gaah:

What a pity if true. When I visited their website early last week, they said construction was due to begin early 2007.

Isn't this thing into construction? Or is that just Spinnaker?

only Spinakker is U/C even though SR was announced first. It seems Moyeni and SR are slow to materialise and one hopes that the mast will actually go up

The mast site has been cleared and crews are on it, so yes it is rising

could i call it U/C then? Any pics of the activity?

:cry: why, this was the sexiest building in the point :cry:

another bits the dust great way to start 2007

I wonder what will come up here in place of it? this is still 1 of the high rise sight for the point, so they cant waste it!

Check this link out, this is sold out

http://www.internationalpropertysolutions.com/Properties/SanRaphael/index.asp

Pule, it might be a marketing ploy. I sent these guys an email requesting information about San Raphael on monday. no feedback yet at all. Either they are not interested, or they don't read emails, or it fell through...

Before u all cry that it has fallen thru i will wait. We bought in this building and have not been told it has fallen thru, and we would be the first to know. My dad contacted his guy again today and he said that nothing of the sort had happened

and jakes it was sold out. thats what makes this "revelation" so confusing

well no work started, anounced in 2004 before spinnaker, sold out "like all dubai buildings" great marketing idea,and we were offered the site as I was informed the deal" had fallen through". I know the developers very well and have worked in SA on projects with them and at the momnet they are very quite on matters.
I supose time will tell but I hope it happens
Mike in your sale agreement, when is constraction due to start and finnish?

Ok so we shall wait

seems the hotel component (old smuggies) is the thing in the poo, aparently the tower is still a go but no hotel operator at this stage

now that makes more sense. they had sales agents with banners up for this dev at Pavillion on the weekend so i really doubted that the project had been canned even more when i saw that.

I think they might struggle to get an operator as most local brands already have places at the point. There only options to me would be go international (still would seem hard to get considering its a real small hotel) or try Protea, for they have no new hotels headed durbans way, while there competitors have many

Whew...that's a relief!

soooo when is the completion date now ??? are we looking at 2009 cause it would be awesome to have this up before the wc

well the sales agents website (www.apartmentbox.com) states start is early in 2007, and the guy at the pav said equipment is expected on site in less than a month

So given emsitamed pilling &, taking into account shortages of matreils, yeh I would say 2009 early 2010 seems about right.

^^ so about same time as The Mast for they say they will be ready end of 2009

My projection is that both San Raphael and The Mast won't be complete before the year 2010, although it is good news to hear that The Mast looks set to begin construction next month after a two year delay. It is true that the shortages of staff and materials is slowing down developments in Durban as has been the case with some of the big developments in the Cape.

I do not understand why San Raphael which was announced three years ago is still in the planning stages. It maybe has to do with the height restrictions of the city council (currently set at 120m), which recently capped two towers in The Pearls of Umhalanga development. It is possible that the slowdown in the residential market in 2005 and 2006 may have stalled these two projects although I think things look on the up now in 2007 for Durban and the rest of the country. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed to see if these developments get the go ahead too.

San Raphael may also be waiting for the hotel operator to sign on and lease units in the complex. Interesting to note that Cape-based Protea Hotels has not yet expanded in Durban Point. With the San Raphael due to be managed by Urban Hip Hotels while Durban-based Three Cities Hotels actively expanding into new developments in the area, I think that the Protea Hotels idea is a good one for San Raphael.

The Spinnaker is definately well underway and I would expect it to be finshed by year end. The Spinnaker is also under the height limit as is the Moyeni Tower.

The Mast WILL most definately be comeplete by 2010 for they have already set Oct 2009 as completion for they state that hotel bookings are open from Jan 2010. Also the Mast has experienced NO delays and everything is still running to schedule, with only 23 of the 170 odd apartments still up for sale.

San Raphael is the project that has experienced a delay. Not in anyway due to sales problems (its almost entirely sold out). I dont know the finer details of its problems but its delay was mainly due to a heritage council review of the project for damage was done to historic buildings when the site was cleared. That forced all building activity on site to be forced to stop.

To clarify as well, only one of the Pearls towers heights has been capped and its not related to height constraints but bulk allowances and the structure of the tower that was leading to shadowing. The councils report back clearly stated that the cap on this tower will not effect the potential height of the largest tower for it is out of the 100m from the beach zone and hence can be whatever height it wishes (for there are no height restrictions on developments in umhlanga).

And the height limit is not signed in stone. The Mast has recieved an exemption on it and will be well over the 120m mark.

To clarify as well, only one of the Pearls towers heights has been capped and its not related to height constraints but bulk allowances and the structure of the tower that was leading to shadowing. The councils report back clearly stated that the cap on this tower will not effect the potential height of the largest tower for it is out of the 100m from the beach zone and hence can be whatever height it wishes (for there are no height restrictions on developments in umhlanga).

Are you talking about the Pearl Dawn tower not being under the shadow rule? Will it still be 40-storeys tall?

No the Pearl Dawn tower was orginally 33F but has been reduced to 26F.

Pearl Sky is the very tall 40F tower and that one will not be bound by the height limits for coastal developments for it is further than 100m from the beach. Its problem will be that the site bulk has already been used up, so additional bulk allowances will be sort. i still see it going ahead, but not at the 40F stated, more likely around 30F to 34F

That's what I thought as the Umhlanga area is already stretched regarding the provision of utilities such as water and sewage.

^^ there are many new water, electricity (substations) and sewage lines being put in to more than double existing capacity. The development of the pier is a direct result of these new stormwater and sewage lines

& Telkom has upgraded most of it underground lines to accomoadate digital tech, so there shouldnt be any hassle in upgrading certain lines to ADSL broadband.

ya but who wants to score internet from helkom lets hope neotel makes there mark

Ya but when are they coming? they suppose to be in action form last year?? Im still waiting!

Neotel will be a waste of time. get iBurst or thru ur cell phone provider if you have a problem with telkom

no neotel has been operating for about 6 months but they we're only doing big business but they launch this month for households YEA!!!

lets hope they bring in some competitve rates, esp for broadband! Im getting sick & tired of my 384 wireless connection @ home.

aaw shame...get the 4 meg like me

I got 4mb running at work, so it that bad :)

geeze why is business so bad in SA, I have 250Mb at home and run on 500Mb at the office. Need it for large files in and out of the FTP

OH YEH, telkom dont even have 100 mb connection for personal use, where they f*ck are they going to have 250mb???? mind you we did install a 1 gig connection recently for an office block, but its being shared for the whole building. So each desk top will have 2-3 mb connection.

I get 1.8 G connection with a Vodacom card. It's very convenient too; anywhere, anytime but you have to obviously watch that you don't exceed your monthly cap.

^^There is no 1,8gig connection, its a 1,8 megabytes per second connection, flipp if you had a 1,8gig connection, you'd be king of South Africa :D

why wld i want 250meg connection at home? what the fuck wld i be downloading to need that much?

porno ??

^^There is no 1,8gig connection, its a 1,8 megabytes per second connection, flipp if you had a 1,8gig connection, you'd be king of South Africa :D

Ooohh, thanks for the clarification. :)

porno ??

:rofl: hit the nail on the head there :lol:

why wld i want 250meg connection at home? what the fuck wld i be downloading to need that much?

cos this is the real world and thats the norm for connections , not this piss willy TElkom crap. I down load loads of movies and shows that arent on TV yet (currently on episode 11 of Lost Season 3 etc), plus I work with large files for our FTP and some days I dont feel like working at the office so I work from home.
mate its how business is run these days, the bigger the broadband the better life is

ooo episode 11 LOST, Im on 7, what episode of Prison Break you got???

will people always want more and more? no wonder our planet is dying, the energy we constantly want for things is scary

grow up mate, I dont see you walking to work, or not buying real estate cos its draining energy resorces.

:colgate: i agree!

:colgate: i agree! with sa boy there

Its got nothing to do with growing up (which is once again mighty rude of you), but with realising that we cant continually want more and more and more, there is going to be a breaking point.

Wanting a faster Internet connection isn't a sign of waste or of environmental destruction. Faster Internet connections allow people to tele-commute. They allow greater business efficiencies.

Sure, as faster connections become available, more people will want computers, and will therefore use the additional electricity required to power those computers. But who are any of us to tell some person in Umtata or Bombay or Mexico City, 'Sorry mate, but you'll have to do without that laptop, because it hurts the environment'?

Dysan asked if people will always want more. History shows us that absolutely the answer is Yes. The key to future progress will be to make technology as efficient as possible so that the unchanging human desire to want more does as little damage as possible to the environment.

Its got nothing to do with growing up (which is once again mighty rude of you), but with realising that we cant continually want more and more and more, there is going to be a breaking point.

mate your attitude to fellow formererd stinks and unless you pull your head in you will continue to get peoples backs up.
You are going the same way as enigma and pissed all of us off. Your curt and off the cuff remarks have no place here and if you act like a child, you will get treated like one. Your comments and rude statements show a distinct juvinile side and untill you can learn to play nice with the adults Ill contuinue to treat you like someone who has no respect for others.read back at your remarks to many of us and you will see im not alone in this regard, dont get a big head cos your daddy does some property work and treat everyone equally

hey there - i thought we discussing the sexy san raphael and now there seems to be a bit of a shark fight!

ouch. anyway telkoms broadband is not great, dont seem to be reaching my adsl cap eventhough im downloading a couple of movies/ episodes a day...which is cool. wanna talk slow internet? go to UCT. thank the lord for the free wireless in the UCT library for laptops.

the broadband speed actually refers to the upload speed not the down load speed. Its a way of providers giving you say 100mb and when you try to down load a movie it takes like 4 hrs when it should take like 30min.Thats what they all do here in the gulf so i assume Telkom is the same

^^no I download a 100mb in a couple of minutes, so 1 episode of Lost which is round about 350mb -400mb takes me 10minutes, Movies take me half an hour MAX.

Lets face facts Internet is the future, as is it, almost anything & everything is on the net, I can buy my groceries, car's, planes, house's flippin hell even Islands, & can do my banking, buy investments, video conference, & you like, you can even buy a wife from Russia!

Its going to be part of everyday life for every person in the future, in some parts of the world it has become that, only here in Africa many arnt blessed to have used such technology. Microsoft, Intel & many other Computer firms are developing products that use much less power to operate, & at speeds faster than its previous models, so yes, in this case the faster & newer you PC is, its better than your old one interms of saving the environment.

I got a 486 PC at home, it has 6mb of RAM, a floppy drive & a 100mb harddrive, I also got a Pentium 2 & a Pentium 4 HT & now a Laptop AMD Dual Core X2, I work with electrical engineers so we got current reader's, the 486 although is old & has the shit spec's draws 4 x times more power than my laptop or P4!

So it shows, whilst technolgy is improving some of them are caring.

a wife from Russia eeehhsh

Some of us still live on ISDN lines..... :)

So one has to either buy DVD box sets or else one will wait for a gazillion years for stuff to download.

Either that, or you have to watch it on the telly. But even there, you miss stuff, like last night's premier of Desperate Housewives Season 3... darn it..

whats ISDN?

its the first generation of high speed data transfer. ADSL is second

its the first generation of high speed data transfer. ADSL is second

I was kidding.

whats ISDN?

:hilarious , dnt mock the dude

haha ive got a 56k modem :( but got broadband @ the arch. labs @ wits

dnt mock the dude


Yes, biatch! :D

haha ive got a 56k modem

Arnt those collector's items now :D? I still got my old US Robotic's Voice Fax that got fried with the lightening.

Arnt those collector's items now :D? I still got my old US Robotic's Voice Fax that got fried with the lightening.
i've got one of those too works well as a doorstop my 56k can built in ps neotel is only coming out in july cause the government focked up the papers :(

^^There is no 1,8gig connection, its a 1,8 megabytes per second connection, flipp if you had a 1,8gig connection, you'd be king of South Africa :D

You actually have a 1.8 megabits per second link (not Megabytes, note that 8 bits = 1 byte, so the difference is a factor of 8 excluding some extra bits used for padding or control purposes during transmission) between your laptop and the nearest tower you are connecting to. From there to the rest of the internet you may very well be connecting at a dialup modem speed of 56 kbps. It all depends on how much bandwidth and how many users are contending for that bandwidth on Vodacom's backbone (this you can trust me, they will never tell you, because the idea is to make you happy that you have a "1.8 Mbps link").

So its akin to being able to fly at great speeds of 240 km/h in your BMW for the first few kilometers only to be slowed down to 30 km/h after reaching the first toll-gate that's within 10 kilometers from your house. So when you left your house, you were supposed to reach 240 kilometers in 1 hour, except we forgot to tell you that the great speeds ran into a little problem after just travelling for 10 kilometers, so you will only reach 240 kilometers in 8 hours!!. Pretty useless if you think about it.

Dysan1,

What is the status on San Raphael at this point?

project canned

R.I.P .......... she was a beauty

Its really sad that this project is canned, I hope that they gonna develop a skyscraper of its calibre in its space.

sure they will. but it is sad she's a gonna, but it happens all the time all over the world

Dysan1,

Why was it canned? Do you have an article on it? It sounds like what happened in Sandton in 2005 when they canned the 23F Sandown Tower and two other residential towers.

sure they will. but it is sad she's a gonna, but it happens all the time all over the world

too true, I have had 3 Four Seasons resorts canned as well as a 75F floor baby. Its part of what we do and sometimes we dont get it right.
Its a pity about SR as she was the first announced like 3 years agoi, must admit it piss poor development managers that allowed it to get away, at least with my FS projects none got past schematic design

^^ surely they have lost alot of money in this?

I would think so as they have paid for the land (although this is an asset that has potentially appreciated), proffecional fees etc and they would have to repay all deposits plus intrest

& Architects fee's, electrical design fee's, mechanical design fee's, structural design fee's...........

thats proffesional fees

Ah missed that, sorry, as I said in the other thread.......Its Monday

hehe oh well, lets see what the newbies look like!

Project not viable as it had too few apartments per floor eventhough the apartments were condensed from 38 to 94 when the development plan was changed. When I looked back at my file on this development it seemed apparent that the hotel portion of the mixed-use project was dropped in favor of more apartments. Also the Heritage Council may not have liked that as it sits on the former derelict Alexandria Hotel site. Sure the developers maintained the facade of the Alexandria on the entrance but they did change the use of the development. The apartments probably would of done well were it not for the cost escalation from the project being delayed. Dysan is right when he suggests that it would cost more than R350 million to build it. I think it would have costed R700 million similar in cost to the Michelangelo Towers in Sandton but the San Raphael being in Durban has a much lower market base as far a property prices compared to SA's business epicenter.

I think that they should either bring back the Alexandria Hotel with it's colonial history in it's modernised form or build an international-class hotel with no more than 18-20 floors in a style that would blend in better with the Point rather than the Dubai-look-alike style of the San Raphael.

I would think so as they have paid for the land (although this is an asset that has potentially appreciated), proffecional fees etc and they would have to repay all deposits plus intrest

That is what happened when Phelan Holdings canned the six-star 145-suite Claridges Hotel in Cape Town in August 2004 when overseas tourism stagnated due to the overvalued rand at the time. What Phelan did was to do a Renaissance-style residence club called Cape Royale which like the Claridges is a sectional-title scheme without the overhead of an hotel.

Likewise in Durban it seems that the upper-end market for luxury apartments has tapered off and the developer will have to go back to the drawing board and do a different type of development, possible a four or five star sectional-title scheme hotel may be the way to go with an international brand name like Radisson or Holiday Inn.

Dysan,

You might want to put the dreaded *Never Built* on this thread like The Mast.