Ian Fife

Almost 30 years after the last new five star hotel in the Johannesburg CBD, the Johannesburg Sun, opened its doors, the city is about to get a new one.

The Johannesburg Sun was mothballed not long after it opened, and the Carlton Hotel closed.

But developer Isaac Chalumbira and hotelier Gustav Krampe think it’s time to build three, four and five-star hotels in the CBD, branded Reef Hotels

The 120-room, four-star hotel opens in Marshall Street near Rissik Street at the edge of the city’s financial district next month.

This will be followed by the 50-room five-star hotel near the headquarters of Anglo American Corp and Standard Bank, and the 150-room not far from that next year.

The CBD already has two new hotels, the Mapungubwe and the Ashanti, which apparently operate at occupancies of between 60% and 70%. But Krampe is convinced that there is room for more, particularly as their three will be the first hotels being managed by a national hotel group. Krampe is MD of African Sky hotels, whose portfolio includes the Ritz in Cape Town and the Pine Lake Inn in Mpumalanga and eight others.

“The Reef Gold is already full for the soccer World Cup,” he says. “We also have bookings from tourists who want to experience the inner city.”

Source: Financial Mail