A swanky new hotel has opened it’s doors in Grahamstown and is looking forward to business despite four other hotels in the city having closed their doors in the last six years.
The New Frontier hotel on Bathurst street has been launched in the historic building which used to house The Crillion Hotel but which had seen some hard times in the recent past.
But the once-grand building is looking swank once more after new owner Savvas Koushis has taken charge.
Koushis, who also runs Assegai Game Lodge outside Grahamstown, said he bought the New Frontier on April 1 this year for “under a million” and had poured almost R2m into getting it up to scratch.
He said he is aiming for a five star grading.
When he bought the building there had been a nightclub running from it. “The place was wrecked. The ceilings were on the floor.”
But he said the hotel was a great business opportunity and he aimed “to place it on the Eastern Cape tourist map”.
Koushis said the hotel’s name aimed to mirror the Eastern Cape tourism industry’s Frontier Country banner.
He said he felt confident that he would make his money back.
“There has been a great increase in tourism and I am booked for July and August besides the festival.”
Koushis said at the moment the building was being used as a National Arts Festival venue for the rock group, The Bats, and a fringe theatre production, The Barbershop. — ECN Cuewire