‘…Let’s promote modern infrastructure development in our CBD’  

Ngoni Dapira

AFRICAN Sun (Pvt) Ltd last week Thursday, through a Full Council meeting resolution won its bid for the extension of Holiday Inn Mutare across the existing car park which is adjacent to the hotel.

The Public Works and Town Lands committee had held a meeting last year on 19 December to resolve the application made by African Sun (Pvt) Ltd requesting for the acquisition of a portion on Second Avenue adjacent to the hotel, which since 2010 was rented out to the hotel as a car park.

Holiday Inn Mutare

In the application African Sun (Pvt) Ltd cited that it wanted to increase its occupancy at Holiday Inn Mutare from 96 rooms to 150 rooms and build bigger conference rooms to boost its Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) market. The hotel currently has four conference rooms with the biggest having a capacity of 250 people and the smallest has a capacity of 20 people.

“Mutare currently has a shortage of rooms to be able to compete as a tourist destination…The proposed extension of Holiday Inn Mutare would come with a convention centre and would therefore help Mutare to attract big events in the city. The occupancy for the hotel this year (2018) had grown by four percent and unless room capacity is increased the city will lose big business,” read some of the submissions to the local authority.

During the meeting last year, the councilors were advised that before consideration of such applications for them to be tabled, all applications were processed subject to the condition that the applicant would have cleared all Council bills. This response came after some councilors inquired on whether there were other merits which made African Sun worthy of winning the bid, especially on the grounds of being up-to-date with their utility bills.

Council resolved to recommend that Holiday Inn Mutare could be extended across the existing car park which is 1480 square metres, and the land would be sold to African Sun (Pvt) Ltd at market value since it will not be put to tender.

“The Council approves change of use from road reservation to commercial use and that all the change of use processes shall be carried out to finality before the signing of the agreement of sale… African Sun Limited will be requested to submit preliminary drawing (architecture’s brief) showing the facilities to be provided, which should include parking provision and pedestrian access to be set aside on the ground floor along the existing pavements,” read the recommendations from the Full Council resolution.

However, on the development conditions, one of the conditions set out was that African Sun should complete construction of the hotel within 15 months from the date of signing the agreement of sale.

This positive development to support urban infrastructure development comes on the heels of the Manicaland Smart City Summit which was launched in Mutare in November last year by the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba in conjunction with Mutare City Council running under the theme, ‘To Develop Zimbabwean Cities as Global Destinations – Offering High Quality Living to Citizens Using Technology-Based Solutions. ’ The smart city concept is commonly used by governments and planners to describe the vision and plan for the development of modern, advanced cities encompassing ICT technologies as well as green and sustainable development, fully utilizing land in the backdrop that it is a limited resource.

Mutare town clerk Joshua Maligwa is on record to encourage the concept of smart cities and development of modern infrastructure especially in the central business district.

“Mutare naturally by virtue of its geographical location we are supposed to be competing with cities like Durban and Cape Town, hence our adoption of the smart city concept so that we get into a position to compete regionally and internationally,” he says.

Operating under the Inter-Continental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the leading global hotel companies, Holiday Inn Mutare features 96 rooms, an outdoor pool and a conference room that accommodates 250 people. Holiday Inn Mutare was re-launched on 1 July 2017 from Amber Hotel. This increased the number of Holiday Inns managed by African Sun (Pvt) Ltd to three hotels — Holiday Inn Bulawayo, Holiday Inn Harare and Holiday Inn Mutare.