Announcing the refurbishment plans and details of the joint venture with MacGregor, Stanford, Kruger Attorneys, the CEO of Louis Group International, Dr Alan Louis, said the refurbishment, while improving the façade of the building significantly, would also respect the requirements of the Heritage Foundation.

A significant addition to the property is the introduction of five luxury penthouse apartments which have been designed to take advantage of a location with easy access to the CBD, waterfront and other major attractions, as well as the breathtaking views of the city, Signal Hill and the harbour.

"The increasing trend to provide loft living to the top end of the market provided impetus to our plans and is in keeping with our Louis Residential Property Division's focus on private luxury property sales," said Louis.

"We are also pleased to have been able to utilise our experience in property refurbishments to overcome the obvious shortcoming in the building - parking. We have been able to engineer two bays per apartment and additional bays for the anchor tenant." added Louis.

"We also believe that the CBD will see a resurgence in the near future and this building, alongside others in our portfolio in the CBD, signals our intent on providing world-class facilities in the area," he said.

Hannes Cloete, property manager for Louis Group International, endorsed the intention to provide world-class facilities by citing the fact that Louis Property Services could provide not only maintenance and other obvious levels of support but in addition, access to outstanding communication and technology infrastructures.

While refurbishment to the offices is already under way, construction of the penthouse apartments will only start in early 2004. – Cape Argus