Dusit D2 Hotel, Apartments And Office Blocks To Be Auctioned

A prime property at the Nairobi’s 14 Riverside Drive that includes Dusit D2 Hotel, residential apartments, and office blocks is set to be auctioned after 10 years of court battle 5 billion shillings owed to creditors. Already buyers have started warming up.

The Supreme Court has ruled that it has no jurisdiction to interfere with the Court of Appeal decision which ordered Cape Holdings Ltd to pay Synergy Industrial Credit Ltd 5 billion shillings.

The Supreme Court Judgement was presided over by Chief Justice Martha Koome together with Judges Mohammed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndungu, and Isaac Lenana.

In 2011 when Synergy Industrial Credit Ltd entered into an agreement with Cape Holdings Ltd to purchase 14 blocks of apartments which the developer was constructing at 14 Riverside Drive.

The company claimed that they paid upfront 750 million shillings for the blocks which were still under construction but when the property was completed, Cape Holdings refused to transfer their units.

Two years ago, 14 Riverside Drive suffered a major terrorist attack when 22 people were killed in a battle that took 20 hours between Kenyan security forces and Al-Shabaab terrorists.

The insurance company paid 400 million shillings for the damages but that was not even enough to bail the prime property out of its financial woes.

News about the auctioning of the property has already started scaring away some tenants who are threatening to vacate the premises over the confusion. Most of the revenue for the prime property comes from office rent and apartments.

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The coming of Covid-19 also affected the business at Dusit D2 Hotels as visitors stopped coming. The hotel had hoped to benefit from the government relief funds but missed out. Now that the Supreme Court has okayed the auctioning, the owners have nowhere else to run to.