An exclusive five-star hotel that recently went on the market for R65-million has been destroyed by the massive fire raging across the Garden Route.
Plettenberg Park Hotel and Spa, owned by businessman Russell Stevens, was nestled among fynbos on a 180ha reserve on a pristine stretch of coastline between Plettenberg Bay and Knysna.
When the Sunday Times visited yesterday, the gutted hotel building was marooned in a charcoal landscape.
"It's a write-off," Stevens said by telephone. "All the decks went and most of the glass windows melted under the heat. Then the fire got inside."
He said there was little the management team could do to prevent the damage on account of the gale-force winds and tinder-dry conditions. "By the time the fire consolidated and got onto our reserve, it was a raging torrent. Nothing could stop it. It jumped right over the hotel. It went right through to Robberg and burnt houses in Plettenberg Bay - that was the extent of it," Stevens said.
Neighbouring landowner Tom Borman, a mining executive who owns a landmark castle on the top of a sea-facing cliff, was more fortunate - the fire burnt right up to his front door but was halted by the rocky cliff-top.
"It is perched on the rock and out of the way, and made out of stone - that is an advantage," Stevens said.
Borman and Stevens co-manage the fynbos reserve surrounding their properties. The hotel had 10 suites, a spa and an expansive entertainment area. In a recent press release, it was described as "an award-winning boutique hotel".
Stevens, 76, is a director of Tsogo Sun and owner of Suncoast Casino.
He and Borman are business partners with Peter Bacon, former CEO of Sun International, in a separate property development.
He said he would most likely retain the Plettenberg Bay property that had been in his family for 40 years. "It was on the market to the right buyer - only the hotel portion of it with some land. The top portion was not on the market. It was fully insured."
