Sun International’s newest project, the expansion and refurbishment of GrandWest’s Grand Hotel, is in its final stages, with a dry run and snagging under way ahead of the public opening on 1 December.

The R133-million investment into the Grand West property has added 68 keys to the Grand Hotel, bringing the total number of rooms to 103. It now also has a heated indoor swimming pool, a Camelot spa, a gym and an outdoor deck area.

It’s the first phase of an ambitious five-year master plan for the GrandWest complex in Goodwood that will eventually include a 25,000m2 shopping centre, which is set to open in April 2026.

It has already signed Pick n Pay, Checkers, Woolworths Food, Mr Price Home and Tiger’s Milk, said Mervyn Naidoo, general manager for the GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World, at the media launch on Monday. 

“Once that is built, we still have 14 hectares of land behind the casino. We plan to develop that land into a housing development above the lake. This casino complex will become a lifestyle development.”

The 57-hectare GrandWest complex first opened in December 2000. It’s the group’s largest in the country, with a high demand for accommodation. It has two casino floors, several restaurants and fast food facilities, a theatre, a nightclub, an ice rink and a family entertainment area.

“For many years the (4-star) Grand Hotel was the busiest hotel in the group. Having a 99% occupancy would be a happy problem for any hotel, but in our case, it prevented us from marketing ourselves to new audiences. It also prevented locals from making a night of it when we host big events.”

The three-storey hotel extension, which consists of two new wings connecting the existing hotel on the north and south corners, and new presidential suites, ordinary suites, double and twin rooms, and interleading family rooms, also has a private dining facility.

The Grand Hotel is a recreation of an original hotel that was built in 1894 on the corner of Adderley and Strand streets. That hotel was upgraded several times until it was eventually demolished in 1952.

When Sun International recreated the hotel in 2000, architects used a scaled-down version of the original Grand Hotel’s 100-year-old plans, as well as popular landmarks such as the Tivoli Music Hall (demolished in the 1930s), the Alhambra Theatre (demolished in 1970s), the Old Railway Station (demolished in 1968), Cartwright’s Corner and District Six buildings.

Peter Stokes, partner at dhk Architects, told guests it was important to stay consistent with the Victorian era while giving the hotel a contemporary look and feel.

“To respect the existing architectural style, the design was based on developing two identical three-storey wings positioned symmetrically on either side of the existing entrance and porte cochere, which we left largely unchanged, to form an appropriately proportioned entrance court consistent with the period architecture. A new access road gives visitors direct access to the hotel.”

Sun International has one other hotel in Cape Town – the 5-star Table Bay in the V&A Waterfront, which opened in 1997. DM