Makasa Sun, which owns the former Kingdom Hotel property in the Victoria Falls resort city, is set to upgrade it before tendering for a new tenant. This was disclosed to The Chronicle by First Capital Bank (FCB) managing director, Ciaran McSharry last week.
FCB owns 50 percent of Makasa Sun while Barclays Bank Pension Fund owns the remainder.
African Sun, which had been leasing the property from which it operated the Kingdom Hotel since 1997, disagreed with Makasa Sun over lease tenure last year forcing it to vacate the building.
McSharry said African Sun, which ran the Kingdom Hotel until 5 January this year, was in the process of moving out of the property, a process which would take up to the end of February.
“We will invest money in the upgrade of the infrastructure and at the same time we will go to tender for local, regional and international takers with the aim of getting the right tenant into the hotel. We look forward to the long-term growth of the hotel which has fantastic potential and we are going to make sure we maximise that potential clearly for the bank, for Victoria Falls and the country at large,” McSharry told the newspaper.
The banking executive expressed Makasa Sun’s wish to secure a tenant for the property as soon as possible for the benefit of tourism. He, however, could not provide timelines for the process of refurbishing the property and securing a new tenant.
“I may not be able to give timelines at this stage but I am glad to say our aim is to keep the closure of the hotel to a shorter time as possible. Right now we are focused on working with African Sun on the exit transition,” he said.
African Sun initially owned the property from which it ran the Makasa Sun Hotel. The hospitality group borrowed from Barclays Bank (now FCB) to rebuild the hotel after it was gutted by fire. The property was used as security for the bank facility.
Following the rebuilding, the hotel adopted a new brand name, the Kingdom Hotel. African Sun failed to repay its debt to FCB resulting in the bank and its pension fund assuming ownership of the property in 2001.