THE Harare City Council’s redevelopment plan of Warren Hills Golf Club (Warren Hills) — in partnership with Augur Investments (Augur) — has “swung into full motion” following the project’s launch last week.
Ken Sharpe, the property development firm’s chief executive, said the US$7 million face-lift would not only mark the start of a massive project, but deliver world-class standards on the 18-hole course to be designed by Peter Macintosh.
“(There have been) challenges with the economy… that have limited our ability to have world-class developments, but our plea and hope is for everyone to support, and allow us to deliver excellent infrastructure,” the millionaire businessman, who was recently feted by Forbes for his exploits, said.
With some Environmental Management Agency approvals having been obtained on the back of extensive studies, ongoing engagements with various stakeholders and promises to protect surrounding wetlands, Sharpe said the Warren Hills refurbishment will take the form or shape of improvements and not “an outright destruction or restart of the entire project”.
Under the project, the course will have a driving range and a new-look clubhouse — after “years of neglect and disrepair due to resource constraints to keep the elite sporting venue afloat”.
In a recent statement, City of Harare (CoH) acting chamber secretary Warren Chiwewe emphasised that the Sunshine Development Company-led project — itself a joint venture between Augur and the Zimbabwean capital — would be pursued on the basis of council providing land and the former chipping in with capital.
“…we are in the final stages of finalising a contract with him (and) as top real estate developers ourselves, l am pretty confident that we will create a place where people can work, play and shop..,” Sharpe said, adding the top designer has delivered projects in Africa and abroad.
For a man, who has also made it his mission to promote Zimbabwe’s economic development at various international forums, it is the 50 year-old property investor’s name that is behind the popular and successful Millennium Heights, and Pomona City suburbs under West Properties.