Cape Town-based property development company Pinnacle Point Holdings Pty Ltd (PPH) is to build one of the world’s most exclusive golf and casino resorts on an island in the Indian Ocean off Mahe, Seychelles. This project will be the largest investment in the Seychelles leisure and entertainment industry to date.

Winning the tender from the Seychelles Government against tough international competition, PPH intend adding to the island, previously reclaimed from the sea, a perfect 18-hole championship golf course which will entail reclaiming land below the sculptured course. The project is expected to be completed within four years.

The Seychelles Minster of National Development, Jacquelin Dugasse said at the signing ceremony that the “Île Aurore Nouvelle (Dawn of a New Island) development is the largest investment in the Seychelles leisure and entertainment industry to date. “Pinnacle Point Holdings joins an illustrious group of international developers like Emirates, Four Seasons, Beachcomber and Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, who have invested in the island. The Seychelles government is honored that the South African property development group has decided to invest in our Indian Ocean paradise,” said Dugasse.

Says Ivor Stratford, PPH chairman ÃŽle Aurore Nouvelle will be a global landmark in an Indian Ocean paradise. Built on a, tropical island with white beaches, swaying palms and a crystal-clear turquoise sea, we are selling a dream – a vision of a golfing water sport and diving paradise – in reality a piece of heaven on water.”

The resort will be linked to Mahe via a palm-lined causeway and golf carts will be the only means of transport on the island with strict environmental controls ensuring preservation of an exquisite tropical island feel.

The tender success follows this year’s international acclaim for the company’s flagship development, Pinnacle Point Beach and Golf Resort on the rugged cliffs of Mossel Bay in the Western Cape. The course was voted one of the top 10 new golf courses in the world by Travel and Leisure GOLF magazine USA; the only course outside North America to receive such recognition. The same course design team will ensure ÃŽle Aurore Nouvelle should equal or even exceed that standard.

Stratford believes the diverse developments complement each other, but marketing will eye Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia.

Plans for only 144 luxurious villas, 90 condominiums, a casino, waterfront marina and a 5-star hotel ensures the resort will be low density and designed to attract discerning international purchasers to an exclusive and desirable address. Moreover, foreign buyers will also be afforded residency by the Seychellois government.

Overseeing architectural design and development is Pinnacle Point’s Lance Kinnear, designer of a number of Sun International hotels, resorts and casinos and later the Gold Reef Casinos, which were also Stratford projects.

Kinnear says the ÃŽle Aurore Nouvelle project will employ South African and where possible Seychellois consultants and contractors to, “Improve the diversity of construction skills and materials in the Seychelles.”

This is a coup for PPH’s BEE consortium headed by deputy chairman Lazarus Zim, who recently acquired a 26% stake in the company. The BEE deal positioned the national property group as one of the industry’s leading black economic empowerment companies.

Pinnacle Point Holdings was introduced to the project by Marie-May Kolsch, the Consul General for the Republic of Seychelles in South Africa.