Johannesburg’s Carlton Hotel, once the pinnacle of luxury in South Africa, has been vacant for more than 20 years and is just a shadow of what it used to be in its glory days. The Carlton Centre, which includes the hotel, is owned by Transnet. Despite being listed for sale multiple times in the past, the sale has never materialised.
Transnet’s sale falls through
Earlier this year, there was another attempt to sell the famous 50-storey Carlton Centre, but it once again did not succeed. The asking price for the building was R900 million. This sale was part of Transnet’s strategy to get rid of properties that are not essential to their operations in order to improve their cash flow.
The bids didn’t meet the financial requirements. Consequently, Transnet is now looking to convert the hotel into affordable housing and lease out 3 000m² to Shoprite, as reported by Daily Investor.
Carlton Hotel’s grand past
The hotel opened in 1972 and was very grand with over 600 rooms across its 31 storeys, a rooftop pool, several restaurants, and upmarket retail stores.
Interestingly, this Carlton Hotel was not the first one. The original Carlton Hotel opened in 1902. It hosted many celebrities, including King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1947. The original hotel was demolished in 1963.
The modern Carlton Centre, Johannesburg
South African Breweries (SAB) recognised an opportunity to build a new hotel in place of the old Carlton. It turned into a joint project involving some of the largest companies in the country. Harry Oppenheimer who was the chair of Anglo American at the time was a major role player.
Anglo and SAB bought up land in the area, taking over five and a half city blocks. The two companies merged their land holdings into one superblock for the centre.
The modern Carlton Centre, built at a cost of R88 million in the 1960s, contained an office tower and a luxury hotel.
In the late 1980s, the situation for the Carlton started to decline. The hotel’s American operator, Westin, decided to terminate its contract because the US government was urging companies to sever connections with Apartheid South Africa.
Final nail in Carlton’s coffin
During the first few years of democratic South Africa, the Johannesburg Central Business District started to decline. The Carlton was not able to escape this decline. Markedly, many companies began moving their headquarters away from the area to Sandton and Rosebank. This was to avoid rising crime and the collapsing infrastructure.
Anglo American finally closed the Carlton Hotel for good in 1998.
Transnet bought the Carlton Centre, including the hotel, from Anglo in 1999 for R33 million. The office tower and shopping centre remain in use, but the hotel has been empty since 1998.
“The Carlton is a ghost place, a mothballed hotel and a symbol both of what downtown Johannesburg was and what it has become.”
The Heritage Portal
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