Chiyangwa $300m golfing, residential estate flops

HARARE – Flashy businessman Phillip Chiyangwa’s dreams of building a residential estate to rival Harare’s famous Borrowdale Brooke have been shattered. This follows the sale of a huge portion of Carey Farm (Private) Limited (Carey) to a group of new investors by the Native Investments Africa Group (Niag) founder to cover an $8 million debt with a local commercial bank.

Although Chiyangwa confirmed selling 80 hectares of the northern Harare property — where a vaunted $300 million golfing and residential estate was to be built — he disputed claims the decision was based on the need to expunge debts with CBZ Bank Limited.

“I have several other properties and a few more that will be sold. The main topic was debt (and) it was paid. Now, do we have anybody worrying us, no,” he told the Weekend Post.

“So many people were interested (as) we were selling through RE/Max (Zimbabwe). The timing had to be right,” Chiyangwa said, adding, though, that the buyer was not South Africa (SA)’s McCormick Group (McCormick).

The Johannesburg-listed international property group and developer is already committed in another $100 million Borrowdale project with Ken Sharpe’s West Group, and known as the Mall of Zimbabwe. The office and retail complex is scheduled for completion mid-next year.

Crucially, the Beverly Hills Golf Estate (Beverly Hills) concept was not dying, Chiyangwa said. Under the Lunar Road plans, Chiyangwa and his transacting partners RE/Max — for which he is chairperson — were to build the 310-unit and high security Beverly Hills.

With its ostentatiously furnished and imposing structures, the multi-million dollar estate would compete with its southern rival, whose “fairways” and other amenities were designed by renowned golfer and former number one player Nick Price.

While South African architects Francois Marais, Nico Van Der Meulen and Raymond Njanike’s Interfin Bank Limited were listed as design, and funding co-ordinators, it was not clear if they would continue in their roles under the new owners or set up.

Rutendo Rutendo, the RE/Max local arm’s chief executive, said late last year that the $250 million golfing estate would have numerous flow-on benefits to players in the building, construction, hardware, interior design and landscaping industries.

“The construction sector has been in limbo for the past 10 years and Beverley Hills comes as a relief to a number of stakeholders such as engineers, the labour market and other potential contractors,” he said.

The prestigious estate was earmarked for an environment where several high profile Zimbabweans, including President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantine Chiwenga and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono also stay.

The proposed northern suburb precinct also has a rich history, with James Mushore’s NMB Bank Limited among its previous owners and it was also persistently linked to the late Solomon Mujuru. As SA’s Sunday Times reported that Chiyangwa was under pressure from the bank, an April 3 High Court notice also said CBZ had withdrawn its suit from the flamboyant businessman.

In recent months, there were also suggestions that the maverick businessman owed another well-connected entreprenuer about $2 to $3 million, emanating from a previous ownership arrangement. The Pinnacle Property Holdings chairperson Thursday said he had made “high-dollar” on the Carey deal and would splash on a private jet, and a Bugatti Veyron vehicle, among other big boys’ toys.

The German-made “demon” is among the fastest road-legal speed production cars in the world, with a top speed of 430 kilometres per hour and driven by the well-heeled in society. It was voted by Jeremy Clarkson’s popular BBC television programme Top Gear as Car of the Decade from 2000 to 2009.

With the swaggering Niag owner claiming he was “partially paying for the jet” now, Chiyangwa has been talking about owning an aeroplane for years. This week, the 52 year-old businessman claimed that he was actually expanding his empire and has since obtained approvals to complete his “magnificent five-star hotel along Crowhill Road”.

However, the Harare City Council (HCC)’s urban planning department has given conditional permission to the project, which the showy businessman says is the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.

“Should the lodges degenerate into a public nuisance in the form of noise, prostitution and/or any other unsavoury behaviour as manifested by repeated complaints to the Zimbabwe Republic Police or the City Council, the local authority shall revoke this permit,” an HCC official said in a letter to Chiyangwa.

The two-storey Crowhill Boulevard, held under Chiyangwa’s Rectitude Investments, will be a boutique concept of exquisite hotels and services, financial, insurance, telecommunications and other business services. He also told the Weekend Post that he will soon announce the establishment of another five-star hotel known as the Pentagon Palace, which encompasses a banking and shopping mall.

As a May 2008 CB Richard Ellis valuation of his property business shows the portfolio is worth $360 million. The Harare businessman claims he is actually “doing very well” despite media reports that he has fallen on hard times.

On Good Friday, Chiyangwa was part of a multitude that attended Emmanuel Makandiwa’s “Judgment Night” salvation sermon. Apart from Pinnacle, the Daily News on Sunday says Chiyangwa owns a raft of other struggling businesses, among them Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed Zeco Limited.

As it is, the engineering group is among four companies facing suspension from the local bourse for non-submission of audited accounts, the Financial Gazette reported last week. He also owns properties in Chinhoyi, Gweru, Kadoma, Kariba, Masvingo and Victoria Falls. Last year, he also opened a private school in Harare’s Bluffhill suburb known as Divari Makaharis. Daily News