Hawthorndene fetches surprisingly good price

Update

GEORGE NEWSFLASH - One of George’s oldest properties, the controversial Hawthorndene Hotel, went under the hammer at auction price of R4,7-million (inclusive of commission and VAT) on Friday 29 September.

The auction was held at the premises of the auctioneers Van Rensburg Auctions in the George Tamsui industrial area.

There is a period to submit higher offers until 12:00 on 6 October at the offices of the auctioneers; the seller however has the right to accept the current offer at any time before 6 October.

The George buyer will have a “first right-of-refusal” chance to match any higher offer. He prefers to keep his name out of the press until the deal has been clinched.

Frederick Bekker of Van Rensburg Auctions said, “The seller has until 20 October at 12:00 to accept or decline this offer”.

In the light of all the complications that come with the property, Bekker is pleased with the good price it fetched.

He added that before the auction he had received a lot of enquiries about the property, but on the day of auction there were only seven registered buyers.

The auction did not go off without a spark of drama.

Shortly after Van Rensburg’s auctioneer Frederick Bekker closed the bid, one of Hawthorndene Hotel’s illegal flat occupants complained out loudly that the emergency housing that will be offered by the George Municipality is a “hokkie” (cubicle) and amounts to a zinc structure near the ocean.

George Municipality’s attorney Arlene Smit (from Nico Snit Attorneys) was there to answer questions about the municipality’s willingness to provide emergency housing.