Cape Town - After 18 months of construction, the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town's CBD officially launched its new basement parking garage on Thursday evening.
At the launch event John van Rooyen, operations director of Tsogo Sun, said this is the first time in its 35-year history that the hotel has its own parking garage. In the past guests had to use a public parking garage across the road.
"We persevered for many years until we finally received permission to develop a car park," said Van Rooyen. The value of the project is about R24m.
The car park has three levels and incorporates part of an old underground shopping area. As the years went by the shops started closing down and the underground shopping area became less and less popular.
"Parking is at a premium in the Cape Town city centre. We believe our car park will enhance the various segmentations we attract to the hotel. This includes corporate group conventions, business tourists, leisure, tourists and Government officials," explained Van Rooyen at the start of construction.
Van Rooyen added that the Cape Sun wants to work with the City of Cape Town in order to add value to public areas near the hotel - like Greenmarket Square - so that guests can walk out and enjoy the surroundings.