13 Jan 2005

The Tyger Valley area, north of the NI motorway,  has exploded into a thriving business hub in recent years. Eberhard Schifer, a former civil engineer and business management consultant from Germany, believes that this growth is likely soon to extend south of the motorway.

Schifer, who has been keeping a close watch on the area, cites several indicators to support his view that business development is about to leap across the N1 barrier. The residential area immediately south of the highway, just behind the landmark M-Kem pharmacy, was recently rezoned for commercial use; a large office block that stood empty for six years became fully occupied late last year; and business at his own boutique hotel, Mut Hut, recently opened in the same area, is already showing encouraging signs of growth, with blue-chip companies like Woolworths and Sanlam among those that have held functions there.

Schifer, a regular visitor to Cape Town since 1990, bought the building that Mut Hut now occupies in 2003, and has converted it into a luxurious hotel that evokes the atmosphere of an African tribal palace, at a total investment of just under R5-million.

While the décor has a distinctly African flavour, subtly created through the imaginative use of natural materials and earth tones, the primary focus of the hotel is not on providing accommodation for tourists but rather on meeting the needs of companies and individuals that wish to relocate and set up a business in Cape Town.

The hotel has nine executive rooms, a downstairs restaurant that can serve as a function room, and conference facilities that will accommodate groups of up to 20 delegates.

A boon to visiting business people is that Mut Hut offers a comprehensive support service including temporary office facilities such as phones, faxes, e-mail and secretarial services, enabling them stay in touch with the outside world while setting up their new ventures.

Financial advice on topics like property investment and cost analysis can be provided, and the services of a registered professional driver arranged for visitors who do not know their way around the city.

“All these facilities work together, as our focus is to become a house of service,” says Schifer, adding that, as a member of Germany’s Stesa group, Mut Hut is able to draw on the group’s many years of experience in providing this type of care and consulting service.

Each of the hotel’s nine executive rooms has its own lounge area, where businessmen could talk to clients in private. The larger rooms also have a four-seater diningroom suite that can serve both for meetings and meals ordered from room service. Generous railway sleeper-type shelving against one wall provides a vast amount of desk space, where a laptop can be left connected, and lots of cupboards have been provided.

Schifer, who travelled extensively on business for many years, occupying countless cramped hotel rooms, designed the Mut Hut to enable businessmen to stretch out in comfort. The rooms, which are all en suite and include the usual mod cons such as satellite TV and coffee-making facilities, vary in size from 40 to 58m², compared to the average 12 to 20m² of most other hotel rooms.

With their screeded floors, rustic dark wood furnishings, natural earth-toned palette, wall hangings depicting wild life, and large windows with views of Lions Head and the Hottentot’s Holland mountains, the rooms appear more like tastefully decorated private apartments than impersonal hotel suites.

There is much that will appeal to local residents, as well as to the business community. The 150-seater Ol `times restaurant, open to the public daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, has bar areas for coffee and liquor, a dance floor, an indoor spit braai facility, and a live entertainment area. Stone pillars, sections of reed ceiling, a swathe of mosaic flooring depicting cracked red earth, and a few well-chosen decorations reinforce the African theme.

A separate dining room resembling a wine cellar, with arched ceiling, narrow windows and a long communal dining table, has been earmarked for medieval parties.

A surprise feature is the romantic hideaway perched at the very top of the building: an intimate en-suite bedroom in a glass tower, with it’s own little “beach” - created by bringing in two tons of real beach sand - where occupants can enjoy spectacular views while sipping a glass of wine or having a private picnic.

While safety in the area has never been a problem, the hotel has nevertheless provided 24-hour security and there is ample parking on the premises.