Cape Town - A historic Cape Dutch manor house on a green estate that borders the Liesbeek River will open its doors as Protea Hotel Mowbray on February 1 2015 – the first Protea Hotel ever to be situated in Cape Town’s southern suburbs.
The hotel’s 70 rooms and suites are spread through the manor house and the adjacent thatched building that used to service as the manor’s barn, but now houses six luxury loft suites.
“Protea Hotels has for several years been seeking an opportunity to create a brand presence in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, but none of the previous prospects were exactly right,” said Mark Satterfield, Marriott International business leader in South Africa.
"The signing of this new hotel under the Protea Hotels brand reinforces our focus on continuing to grow the footprint of the brand in South Africa and other strategic growth areas within Africa."
He said Marriot knew it was the right place and the right time when the opportunity arose to take over this property, which is within walking distance of Black River Park, a vast commercial office complex that houses numerous national and multinational companies.
Satterfield said the natural growth trajectory for the brand in Cape Town has been in the City Bowl and Atlantic Seaboard – which attract extensive corporate, leisure and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) business – as well as the northern suburbs where numerous large companies are headquartered.
More recently it has moved into the Century City lifestyle precinct with the 5-star conferencing hotel, African Pride Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa.
“But we’re incredibly excited to have our first crack at the southern suburbs, which is as busy commercially as it is residentially and this presents a wealth of opportunities from a hospitality point of view,” he said.
Protea Hotel Mowbray’s main target markets will be corporate travellers, the MICE industry, domestic leisure travellers with a particular focus on families and the sports groups which play at the many surrounding fields and clubs.