Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Bantry Hills gets go-ahead
Court dismisses application to stop R1bn development
THE Western Cape High Court has given the go-ahead for the construction of a R1-billion development on Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard.
The construction of the Bantry Hills development in Sea Point was guaranteed after the court dismissed an application by Fresnaye businessman Allan Targhi Tavakoli to stop the ultra-luxury development.
Judge Vincent Saldanha thwarted the bid to halt the development on the 7.546m² of land that developers said would consist of 60 uniquely designed apartments.
It is believed some units have already been sold to 47 buyers for about R12 million.
Bantry Hills is the largest new development on the Atlantic seaboard, with four curved blocks as high as 12 floors, surrounded by gardens and luxury facilities including a concierge.
The application by Tavakoli was his second after he successfully interdicted the City of Cape Town and other developers from raising parts of the development above the ground floor slab on November 3.
Tavakoli owns three properties in Kloof Road including guest houses.
Judge Saldanha dismissed his interdict bid with a punitive cost order for both applications and said he lacked standing.
The judge said in his 30-page judgment that Tavakoli failed to prove he would be affected by the development since, “in my view it is abundantly clear that the applicant’s property is not situated within the exact same zone” as Bantry Hills.
He added that “the applicants have failed to allege and demonstrate that they will in any way be affected” by the new development.
The court also dismissed the allegation that the road access into Bantry Hills would be too narrow, saying the interpretation of the road access by both the City of Cape Town and the developers was correct, since there were two entries to the development.
Judge Saldanha noted that the developers were prepared to cede a portion of their property so as to widen the road and that he “would have come to the assistance of the developers on condition that it was able to demonstrate within a specified period the successful alienation of a portion of its property” to the City of Cape Town.
The site of the development was once the home of coloured families forcibly removed during apartheid. It was given to the Tramway Road Trust by the City in 2001.
According to developer Mike Flax of Spear Property, the land became the city’s highest value residential development. The claimants however, were saddled with debt of R14m because it could not honour an agreement to develop the property.
Flax said each of the Tramway families received about R2m for the forced removals.
Work on the site is set for completion in November.
Flax said foreign buyers who had already snapped up apartments ranged from New Yorkers to residents of Mumbai, London and Copenhagen. He said there had also been a lot of interest from South African families moving to the Cape.
Bantry Hills, which will face Lion’s Head and the Atlantic Ocean, will have 5 000m2 of landscaped gardens, 12 private pools, a concierge, spa, business lounge, medical emergency room, children’s play area and yoga garden.
The development comes at a time when low-income groups who work in the area are fighting for affordable inner city housing.
According to Flax, 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.