By Roux van Zyl

East London’s beachfront will be home to the Eastern Cape’s first convention centre as part of a R300 million Regent Hotel expansion plan presently underway.

Details of the 1400 seater convention centre and five-star hotel were unveiled by Premier
Hotels and Resorts managing director Samuel Nassimov for the first time on Friday during an exclusive interview with the Saturday Dispatch.

Nassimov said once completed in February 2009, the new development, dubbed Emonti Hotel and Convention Centre, would be the province’s biggest conference facility.

This will be a feather in the cap for East London because rival city Port Elizabeth has been punting a R500-million international convention centre concept for over two years, without
result.

But Nassimov, who was initially interested in the Port Elizabeth convention centre development, said he believed he made the right choice by placing the convention centre in East London.

“When I initially built the Regent Hotel seven years ago, many people thought I had lost my marbles to spend R35million in East London. However the proof is in the product.

“Since the Regent Hotel opened its doors it has created new business that was not here before. We are even turning away business because we do not have enough facilities.”

One of the features of the development is a 254-bed “cascading” hotel, with three wings.

Two-bedroom sectional title units will be sold and rented out as hotel rooms by Premier Hotels.

The convention centre will comprise three interleading sections, including a 620 seat auditorium and two conference rooms seating 200 and 450 delegates respectively.

Other adjoining developments include a wellness centre and spa, gym, swimming pool, coffee shop, restaurant, bar, a business centre and two levels of covered parking.

The entire new development will be linked to the existing Regent Hotel.

Nassimov’s NV Properties partnered with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on the convention centre development, because he said commercial banks generally did not fund such projects.

IDC spokesperson Sindiso Malaku confirmed the funding organisation’s involvement in Emonti.

Research shows that convention centres are rarely profitable on their own, but the benefits lie in attracting people to an area, which in turn boosts business for hotels, restaurants, shopping centres and other tourist attractions.

Nassimov said he believed the Emonti development will fill a gap in the country’s convention centre industry, which is lead by Cape Town, Sandton and Durban.

“The other convention centres attract international conferences and a small conference of 600 to 700 people are not viable for their large halls. So we are targeting 500 to 1000 seater national and smaller international conferences,” he said.

Nassimov said they were aiming to make the hotel a five-star establishment but doubted whether East London could sustain it. “We aim for the hotel to have five-star status, but it all depends on the availability of staff.”

Daily Dispatch