Sarova Panafric in extensive renovation

Jasprit Sagoo

Sarova Panafric Nairobi, an iconic hotel in the Kenyan capital and one of the best known establishments in the hospitality sector, is undergoing major renovations that will give the hotel a completely new and modern look with expanded facilities.

The hotel, located on Kenyatta Avenue near Milimani, opened its doors in 1965 as The Panafric. The name was in line with the spirit of Pan Africanism that was sweeping the African continent in those days. The hotel quickly became the home of cultural theme nights in a celebration of good food, music and ideals. Presidents, leaders and other guests from across the continent visited the hotel frequently.

In 1991, The Sarova Group bought the The Panafric and the hotel has been known as Sarova Panafric since then.

The US$ 20 million refurbishment is part of the Sarova Group’s continuing improvement of its facilities aimed at offering the best possible experience to its customers. Symbion Kenya were appointed as the lead consultants in this project.

The project entails refurbishment of existing Kenyatta Avenue 90 rooms into 84 standard rooms and three suites, nine new rooms bringing the total room count to 96. To complement the new rooms, a new health club consisting of gym, aerobics, spa, changing rooms with steam rooms and saunas has been incorporated. The existing swimming pool has also been refurbished and an outdoor pool bar added. To take advantage of the roof top views, a new steampunk themed 7th floor restaurant and bar has also been added to the exciting Nairobi roof top bars and restaurants. The public areas will also be renovated in keeping with the newly refurbished rooms. The popular Flame Tree restaurant which is synonymous with the Sarova Panafric Hotel will also receive an uplift of interior decor and additional indoor seating space. The reception and entrance porte cochere, meeting rooms and addition of an executive residents lounge will form part of the final construction phase of the planned renovations and additions.

Although Symbion has undertaken many hospitality sector projects in the past, the consultancy says this project is different.

“The Sarova Panafric Hotel is unique because of the fact that it’s one of the oldest structures

constructed in the 70’s where headroom heights between slabs were minimal allowing limited space for incorporation of new MEP services which are a new feature”, says Architect Pascal Obala. “These limitations of headroom also affect any new building being done adjacent to the existing structures creating a very challenging situation in terms of provision of services.”

“The site is also unique in that it features very hard solid rock which required plasma rock breaking technique where new foundations were being done, the fact that the excavations were next to existing foundations meant a lot of control had to be exercised on amount of charge applied to break the rock making the process slow and tedious,” says Obala. He adds that the addition of a new roof restaurant was also faced with structural challenges of the existing slab’s inability to carry weights required for the roof top restaurant, necessitating creation of a new suspended steel slab designed to carry the new loads. “The renovation has also been undertaken at a very unique period in the hotel industry due to the Covid -19 pandemic which meant reducing aspects of the project due to budgetary constraints entailing revisions of some of the planned ambitious additions and expansions”.

The building exterior has been remodeled from the 70’s design that featured decorative fins that had become a hindrance to the maintenance of the building’s façade. The fins were demolished and replaced with wide acoustic windows to cut out the noise from Kenyatta Avenue and reduce solar ingress, effectively reducing energy