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INLSA<\/p>\n
This vacant building on Durbans beachfront, close to the Rachel Finlayson swimming pool, is one of three vacant restaurant outlets on the revamped promenade.<\/p>\n
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Three vacant restaurant buildings on the Durban beachfront would not be filled any time soon because of a lack of tenants, Durban Tourism chief executive officer Philip Sithole said yesterday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe advertised the space but have not got the right kind of responses. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has gone out to look but we are not getting the right mix of tenants,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe would prefer to have |experienced restaurateurs. The city is looking for experience, quality and variety.\u201d <\/p>\n
The city was mindful that previously disadvantaged communities had not had an opportunity to trade at the beachfront and it was considering this in the selection process. <\/p>\n
Durban Tourism has been working on a full upgrade of the beachfront that will only be completed next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now working on the second phase of the beachfront upgrade,\u201d said Sithole. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes extending the promenade to the Blue Lagoon, bringing the swimming pools up to standard and creating an inner parking area at the Blue Lagoon. This project is going to cost about R79 million,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to go to a beach that is buzzing, this is why the city has spent millions on music shows, water sports and other events at the beachfront to make it a viable place for restaurants.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not happy that the restaurants are not occupied. We plan to change the way we are advertising these vacancies and start re-advertising them by the end of October,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) was unhappy with the lack of progress, though. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have offered the city our assistance,\u201d said Gerhard Patzer, east coast chairman of the association. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe restaurants that we represent do not know the terms and cost of the leases of these buildings,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has been telling us the same thing since last year. We were assured that we would get a look at the leases but that has not happened yet.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sithole said that the city was happy that the association wanted to work with it and all stakeholders, including the public, would be informed when the bidding processes (for the restaurants) was implemented. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as we would like to be transparent, we have to remember that these are open tender processes which must be in line with the law, and supply-chain management processes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The association said it could help find tenants for the restaurants but only if the city let it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA This vacant building on Durbans beachfront, close to the Rachel Finlayson swimming pool, is one of three vacant restaurant outlets on the revamped promenade. Three vacant restaurant buildings on the Durban beachfront would not be filled any time soon because of a lack of tenants, Durban Tourism chief executive officer Philip Sithole said yesterday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-13223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}