Cape Town - Once the home of coloured families forcibly removed during apartheid, a prime property on the border between Fresnaye and Bantry Bay will be turned into “ultra luxury”, multi-million rand apartments – several of which have already been sold to international buyers for an average price of R12 million.
The land, which was given to the Tramway Road Trust for free by the City of Cape Town in 2001 will, according to developer Mike Flax from Spear Property, become the city’s highest value residential development, worth R750m.
But the 34 trustees who, after a spate of failed plans to develop the property sold the land to Spear Property Trust for R51m two years ago, are entitled to just over R800 000 each.
The city awarded the land to the trust on condition it be developed to the benefit of beneficiaries.
But the claimants encountered bad luck along the way and were saddled with debt of R14m because it could not honour an agreement to develop the property.
Flax said he believed the Tramway families had got the best price they could for the erf, which equated to around R2m per family.
Work on the site would start within the next week to construct the three-level deep basement parking.
Construction on the 11-floor, 60 apartment complex would start in May.
Due for completion in November 2017, Flax said: “It will certainly be one of the most iconic residential developments on the Atlantic Seaboard.’’
Foreign buyers who had already snapped up an apartment are from New York, Mumbai, London and Copenhagen.
Flax said there had also been a lot of interest from South African families who are relocating to the Cape.
But while the developers are excited about their project, some of the trustees say this is not how they envisioned their land restitution claim would turn out.
John Valentine, 75, said he was not prepared to accept the money because he did not agree with how the trust had handled the process.
In 2014, Valentine was part of a group of disgruntled claimants who hired a lawyer to challenge the decisions taken by the chairman of the trust, Leonard Lopes.
Valentine, whose brother is also a claimant, lived on the Tramway Road property from 1941 until his family of eight was ordered to move to Bonteheuwel in 1961.
He was baptised and confirmed in the Anglican Church across the road.
“I will not give up my right. I will wait. How they handled things was not right. They can’t force people to do things,” Valentine said.
Another claimant, 77-year-old Ed Collins, was born in Tramway Road.
Now in ill health, he said he wanted to “let sleeping dogs lie”.
Although he claimed the trust had not been transparent about their actions, he had decided to invest the money he had received.
“I’m not a happy man at all. My heart is sore. But there’s no point in fighting a losing battle against the majority,’’ Collins said.
“Let them go ahead and build.”
According to Lopes, however, the majority of the claimants were “happy’’ with their payout. He would not confirm how much each claimant had received.
Asked whether he was satisfied with how the process had turned out, Lopes said: “Not really. But we sold the land. We’ve got nothing to do with it anymore.”
He did not want to comment on the future development of the property.
Bantry Hills, which will face Lion’s Head and the Atlantic Ocean, will have 5 000m2 of landscape gardens, indoor and outdoor pools, 12 private pools, a concierge, spa, business lounge, medical emergency room, a children’s play area and a yoga garden. The development of the Tramway site comes at a time when low income groups, who work in the area, are fighting for affordable inner city housing.
But Flax said the increased value of inner city property was a universal trend and the rates and taxes Bantry Hills would generate would go into city coffers to subsidise affordable housing.
Cape Argus