http://www.metallonprops.com/projectsDocs/Hibberdene%200_COVER.JPG

http://www.metallonprops.com/projectsDocs/Hibberdene%20SITE%20PLAN%20phasing%20final%20jpeg.jpg

Hibberdene marina and small craft harbour – South coast

40 room hotel, three 3 storey apartment blocks, shopping / entertainment area

Harbour suitable for ski boats and flat keeled yachts and catamarans
700m from Hibberdene Blue Flag beach
Estimated launch date: Awaiting local authority tender acceptance

Developer - Mettalon Properties

That picture is confusing, it shows like a wharf similar to that of Wilsons, but the site plan shows beach with the actual stores inland :dunno:

Is that a wharf or a boat ramp in the site plan?

Either way, the drawings are very confusing. A project based on the render would be much better than one based on the site plan.

Is that a wharf or a boat ramp in the site plan?

Either way, the drawings are very confusing. A project based on the render would be much better than one based on the site plan.

i agree that this is confusing. The ref to 'flat keeled' yachts is also confusing. Most modern sailing boats have a draft / depth of at least 1.80 m. If the marina is too shallow to accomodate these craft i hope they review their plans to make it deeper.

^^ This is one of 3 proposals for it. i dont have the other 2

Yes, this is confusing. How are the boats supposed to get inside the canal system? There doesn't seem to be a link to the sea.

Unless only hover crafts are allowed :crazy:

Here some more renders...maybe better to understand. looks a great project!!

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/Drawing3Lge.jpg

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/HarbourPhotoLge.jpg

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/Drawing8Lge.jpg

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/Drawing2Lge.jpg

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/Drawing4Lge.jpg

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/Drawing5Lge.jpg

http://www.hibberdeneharbour.com/Drawing6Lge.jpg

ah, that makes sense now! thanx for the post Mike!

Makes much more sense! Obivously the site plan in the original post is the existing site.

This is one of 4 new marina's planned for the KZN coast. The others being Port Shepstone, Durban Point (vetchies) and Tinly Manor on the north coast. If all of them go ahead it will be great for sailing on the KZN coast, for there will be more destinations to stop off. At present you only have Durban and Richard's Bay harbours. The addition of all these smaller one's will be fantastic for tourism (sailing from marina to marina) and also from a safety aspect (yachts can pull into safe marina's closer than presently) And the waterfront elements on all of them are also great.

prefer the bigger marina with units on the sea side as well

oops i better redo the pics and not link them

Dysan1, a bit of the topic but where is Tinly Manor? How for from durban?

Tinley Manor is on the north coast (opposite coast from this development), about 60-70km north of Durban CBD.

is this development still on the cards? mo news for a long time..

i honestly have no idea. it is one of a string of proposed marina developments up and down the kzn coast, all which have to go through a very lengthy eia process. i'll try see what i can find

i honestly have no idea. it is one of a string of proposed marina developments up and down the kzn coast, all which have to go through a very lengthy eia process. i'll try see what i can find

I'm not sure about Metallon... - eg. I think if Tongaat Hulett (Moreland) were still involved with the Point ... we could actually see a little more movement...

Neels is a dictator just like Sutcliffe... and Neels' boss/bizpartner is Mzi Khumalo whos deal to build the cradle hotel a Zimbali collapsed... - I hope they not involved in this.

Anyway I heard former Proteas cricketer Pat Symcox is involved in this one.

mettalon does not exist anymore

mettalon does not exist anymore

is this one still warm and breathing?

i really dont know who to contact to find out. Metallon became Laurusco developments, maybe them?

Sadly, looks like this development is virtually dead, thanks to government screw-ups. Again. Sigh!

------------------

R5bn project halted

August 18 2009 at 09:11AM

By Colleen Dardagan

The developers of a R5-billion residential and harbour development on the South Coast are ready to throw in the towel on the project, set to create 60 000 jobs, after years of administrative bungling by the government have brought the project to a halt.

The 600ha Spray Rock Harbour and Game Estate at Hibberdene, which included the development of a yacht marina on the town's old beachfront airstrip and a proposed 600ha inland residential golf and game estate, was expected to generate significant rates income for the Ugu District Municipality and create at least 60 000 direct and indirect jobs in a region with a high unemployment rate.

In 1996, when the project was first proposed, it was earmarked as a presidential node and was therefore considered a priority development.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) was originally approved in November 2003 and funding was available at the time.

However, after five years and three extensions to the environmental approval, the government's failure to transfer the 3.2ha airstrip, which belongs to the Public Works Department, to the Ugu Municipality in time resulted in the EIA being cancelled.

"This means we are going to have to start again from scratch," said local farmer and developer Derrick Powell.

"It could take at least another 18 months to get things going again. We doubt whether we will get approval now if the land hasn't been transferred. We won the tender for the development from the Ugu Municipality two years ago. To date we have spent about R1-million developing the plans and getting the documentation in order.

"The marina is critical to the success of the residential project, but for some unknown reason the transfer of the airstrip between the government departments has just not happened."

Ugu Municipality spokesman Brian Dube said he believed the delay was due to backlogs at the Public Works Department. He said the municipality supported the project.

"Our approach has always been to provide an enabling environment to stimulate economic growth and in this respect our contribution (to the project) was to provide the land, which we are in the process of doing."

Public works spokesman Koketso Sachane was unable to respond to questions posed by The Mercury on Monday but a co-developer of the project, Muzi Mkhize, said the blame rested squarely with the municipality.

"The Department of Public Works cannot take the initiative on the transfer, it's up to the municipality. They are not competent to deliver. I approached the national Minister of Public Works, Geoff Doidge. He promised that the transfer would be done by July 29, but the municipality has done nothing.

"This project has been lying stagnant for the past five years. I think it's time we take the matter to court."

Powell said the project would include a full range of shopping facilities, the improvement of existing beach facilities, a demarcated coastal reserve and upmarket hotels and holiday apartments.

"The golf and residential estate were directly linked to the 350-berth marina via private access roads. It had the potential to change the face of our district.

"We've already lost two investors who ran out of patience - one has taken his money to the Seychelles and the other to Australia."

Powell said other investors were interested, but were also wary of getting involved in the project if it meant decisions would take years to be resolved.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on August 18, 2009

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn20090818031318747C274124

can only be goverment :doh:

Hi,

My Name is Tony, new to the siteand was wondering why i cannot open the pictures or renderings on the forum.

Would love to see what the proposed marina would look like as i have some property in the area.

^^ hi there mate. I think the source for the images has unfortunately been shut down. I will dig through my records and see if i can find them and repost them

Thanks Dysan,

If you mange to get some, let me knowand i can give my mail add to you.

I really hope this takes project off again

It's a sad state of affairs

2009/08/31

A R5bn residential estate and harbour on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal has ground to a halt because alleged government inefficiencies prevented the land earmarked for this development being transferred to the developers.

The 600-hectare Spray Rock Harbour and Game Estate at Hibberdene – which included the development of a yacht marina on the town's old beachfront airstrip – was expected to generate significant rates income for the Ugu District Municipality and to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs for local residents hard-hit by a lack of opportunity and local investments.

The original project was first mooted in 1996 and, by November 2003, the environmental impact assessment had been completed and the funding for this development was in place. Foreign investors were keen to put up the necessary development capital.

All that was required was for the government to transfer the 3,2 hectare airstrip belonging to the Public Works Department to the Ugu District Municipality. The developers have waited since 2003 for the transfer to take place and still nothing has happened. The net result is that the environmental assessment – that included the transformation of the airstrip to a marina – was withdrawn.

Moreover, the organisations that had been willing to fund the development have got sick and tired of the promises made by the developers and government officials and have walked away from the project, choosing to invest their money in other parts of the world such as Australia, Croatia and other parts of Eastern Europe where projects do not sit on drawing boards for years on end because of government intransigence.

And this is one of the endemic problems in South Africa and, for that matter, many other parts of Africa as well.

You see there appears to be a notion among many government officials and others that the foreign investment world actually "owes it" to Africa to invest in the continent having spent more than a hundred years exploiting its mineral wealth and its raw materials.

It's one thing to walk around believing that foreign governments "owe it to Africa" to invest cash in rebuilding the continent but it's quite another thing to think that property developers will take a guilty-conscience approach to putting up the money needed for a major development.

These investors are sitting on piles of their own cash and can spend it in any market they choose. These people might be "exploiting" Africa but that's the way the investment market works. And Africa as a whole and South Africa more particularly must understand that it is now competing with the rest of the developing world to attract investment funds and turn them into jobs, profit and wealth.

This can only be done by making the investment environment attractive, not by delaying a project for more than five years while government officials push papers around the desk before heading for the nearest restaurant to refill their bulging stomachs.

Ugu spokesman Brian Dube has blamed the delay on backlogs at the Public Works Department and claims that Ugu supports the project and is keen to see it go ahead.

According to co-developer Muzi Mkhize the Department of Public Works is not to blame because it apparently cannot take the initiative to transfer the property as that the municipality must take initiative.

However, when the Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge was approached on this matter, he said that the property would be transferred by the end of July and now, at the end of August, this still has not happened.

In the meantime, the developers have seen the original investors walk away from Africa and they will have to attempt to raise funds elsewhere in a market where money is notoriously difficult to raise.

In fact, the changes of the Hibberdene development going ahead at this stage seem remarkably remote.

This event is typical of many developments that are being stymied by government inefficiency. And it doesn't affect only large developments. For instance, I received a letter recently from a farmer who sold his farm to the state in November last year and, on the strength of that sale, he put in an offer to purchase another farm.

He was informed by a state representative (he doesn't say who) that he would have to wait until April this year before any money could be paid even though the state had undertaken to buy the property in November last year.

Obviously his offer to purchase a new farm was null and void, as he had no hope of getting money from the state until sometime in April. So in April, the farmer offered to purchase the same farm he wanted in November and this offer was also accepted.

In July this year the state informed him that it was unable to pay him because no funds were available and a moratorium on payments for land had been instituted. By then the sale of this farm to the state had been an on-and-off affair for a year.

Then, out of the blue, the farmer received notification that the state had registered, with the Deeds Office, the property it had negotiated to buy the previous year.

The property now belonged to the state but still no money had been paid to the farmer and, worse still, he is unable to get any clarity on when he will receive his cash either. He must just wait.

In simple terms this farmer currently has no land, no money and no way to purchase a new farm. And, of course, the state doesn't care one jot about the predicament it has created.

There are numerous similar cases on record: builder's merchants waiting for nine months for payment on projects that are already completed and government departments being sued by private individuals for outstanding debts of enormous proportions. There is a long list of complaints.

Believe it or not, way back in 2004, government undertook to clamp down on late payments to owner-managed businesses and created a project team to supposedly look at the 136 municipalities that were not paying suppliers.

Project Consolidate was launched and a spokesman, Daniel Manyindo – who, at the time was a special advisor to the then Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi – assigned service delivery facilitators to various municipalities to overcome the problem.

Government undertook to ensure that late payment would soon be a thing of the past and that all owner-managed businesses would be paid within 14 days of invoice.

Of course none of these undertakings has been met and today we still sit with thousands of businesses in thousands of different sectors that are not being paid by government despite all sorts of task teams, consolidation programmes and payment indabas.

What does it all come down to? Simple, plain government inefficiency.

And it's not only killing investment (as the Hibberdene development shows), but it's damaging local entrepreneurs and forcing viable, functioning businesses into liquidation.

And if you open any one of hundreds of property auctions you'll find evidence of commercial entities being forced into liquidation – sometimes through no fault of their own.

How can we call this good governance?

*Paddy Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn't pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.

a clusterfuck of he said she said

What a cock- up, amd all the time progress ends...

Yes, it's still breathing. Yesterday's Merucry contained a report saying that the land has been handed over from the Department of Public Works to the Ugu Council for the developement to go ahead. Now the challenge is to get the EIA approval and to get the investors interested again. The report said the development is worth R5b and is now being strongly supported by all levels of govt. Let's hope so. The render in yesterday's Mercury looked stunning.

Thankfully there is now some progress. The government have this week transferred the land for the Hibberdene Small Craft Harbour to the local municipality. Hence the project can move to the next stages, which are understood to involve the need for some planning/environmental consents - see link below. Financing for the project is still unclear.


http://www.feveronline.co.za/details.asp?StoNum=4763&pub=1&from=list%2Easp%3Fpub%3D1

Welcome rgadriani.

A further half year has now elapsed since the last post. Does anyone know whether the Hibberdene Small Craft Harbour Project is still alive? Or was the report on transferring the requisite land to the Municipality just a "dead cat bounce".

Does anyone know if there is progress on this development. Last i heard was a newspaper article back in 2010, nothing more