A consortium of business people, including the Pitsiladi family, has bought the primely situated Brookes Pavilion centre on Port Elizabeth's beachfront.

The centre was put up for sale by tender in May after a short marketing campaign on eProp, and the consortium is currently putting the finishing touches to the deal.

At the time, Aucor specialist property dealers executive Martin Dibowitz said the "ball-park" asking price was R30-million.

The new owners have not disclosed how much they paid for the 8 174 square metre property.

The Pitsiladi family and Preston Liquors, with which the family is associated, each have a 25,5% stake in the property, while entrepreneur Stuart Graham has a 25% stake, and Gary Rhodes owns 10%.

The balance is made up of smaller investors, including a 4,5% stake owned by Patrick Grewar who is the centre's newest tenant.

One of the principal investors, Peter Pitsiladi, said yesterday that members of the group of buyers "all knew each other and decided to buy it together".

The sale of the property looked in danger of becoming controversial when issues surrounding the height restriction on the building arose.

Pitsiladi said the investors were now conducting a feasibility study on the best use for the building. "We are looking at a couple of options. We can either leave it as it is, and change the tenant mix.

"We may possibly add one more floor which we would make residential, but leave the rest commercial, or we could knock it all down and start from scratch."

He said whatever happened, the intention was to keep the property commercial.

"Brookes Pavilion has its problems and there is a bad stigma attached to it - but from a location point of view, it is really good," Pitsiladi said.

He acknowledged that as is, the tenant mix was "wrong", but the investors hoped to clean up the image of the centre which has been battling to get back on its feet.

He said once the feasibility study had been conducted, more decisions would be made and in the meantime the new owners were hoping to keep in contact with the current tenants and keep them informed.

"Obviously if we bash the place down and start again, it might pose a problem for a while, but those tenants would be incorporated in the new development," Pitsiladi said.

Current tenants in the building include the Dros restaurant, Tapas, Toby Joes and a new upmarket sports bar operated by Grewar.

Grewar said he had invested R3- million in the venue.

Eastern Province Herald