Plans are afoot for the development of a spice quarter in the Durban CBD, a R400 million project that will include a 180-bed eco-friendly hotel.
The development is the brainchild of architect and project manager Jonathan Edkins, the former head of architecture at the eThekwini Municipality.
“The idea arose from discussions with the family who own the Spice Emporium. They wanted their business to contribute to the urban regeneration in the Durban CBD. They asked me to look at the building and find ways to transform and improve it while involving other businesses in the area to rejuvenate the surrounding environment,” said Edkins.
The three-storey building on Monty Naicker (Pine) Road houses the spice shop that was opened by husband and wife Vinod and Chandrika Harie 35 years ago. There is also a restaurant that serves finger foods (or chaat) as found on the streets of India.
Edkins said the second restaurant planned for the development was modelled on the Blindekuh in Zurich, a dining experience in complete darkness.
“It’s part of our social responsibility. It will create employment for blind and partially sighted people while increasing awareness for sighted people, who will experience sitting down for a meal in the dark.
“This literally inverts the dining relationships, it puts pressure on the diners to communicate differently with one another and with their waitrons and enhances the senses for tasting and appreciating the food,” said Edkins.
Besides serving food using spices from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Reunion Island and Zanzibar (from the emporium), the restaurant will also serve fresh produce from a rooftop garden.
This will be grown on part of the roof of the existing building, while the walls of the planned eight-storey hotel are also planned to be “green”.
“The developer of the hotel will be one who shares our commitment to social responsibility and the desire to promote social and ecological sustainability. The hotel is designed to have a sun screen green wall just like buildings in India, with each level not just being static concrete, but a vertical garden. The plan is to have people doing gardening right there on the hotel wall, and in a way that will create jobs,” said Edkins.
Urban regeneration had worked well for Cape Town and Joburg, showing the strength of private/public partnerships.
“For a long time, there was no inner city strategy at the municipality, but it is now prioritised by the new council. It is now time for the private sector to look at what it can do to reinforce the policies set by the government and take advantage of the incentives to regenerate the city,” he said.
In a city synonymous with spices, the emporium has set itself apart by providing a spice experience, and that was also the aim of the spice quarter. Vinod said they also wanted to upgrade and expand the Spice Trail Exhibition in the emporium to an interactive spice culture museum. SMME’s, artists and crafters would be able to rent space.
“We were ahead of our time and won many awards. I can’t take this business any further, so I am bringing in my children and, with Edkins’s ideas, they can take it to the next level,” he said.
As much of the inner city decayed, the eastern block remained relatively unaffected, with projects like the Rivertown development bringing in rejuvenation.
“There is a lot of potential. The emporium already gets a lot of tourists, but we now want to create a hub, a safe corridor between the ICC and the beachfront for everyone, including the disabled.”
Edkins said a new urban management system would be established in partnership with surrounding businesses, like the Florida Road urban improvement precinct.
With their plans now complete, Edkins said they were speaking to investors and construction was expected to start next year.