Network connects with Vivian Reddy

KIRU NAIDOO

“GIVE people world class and they will pay for it,” gushes property developer Vivian Reddy, looking out over the grand piazza of uMhlanga’s Oceans Mall.

Opening day saw over 36 000 people burst through its shopping boulevards.

Our lunch rendezvous is the next day. The restaurants are chock-full. “Since breakfast,” croons the proprietor of the chic Olive & Oil.

Nick, the attentive waiter, is quick with the food orders. A seafood paella for him. Linguine with wild mushrooms and truffle for me. A bottle of still water at room temperature between us.

Reddy rattles off answers in rapidfire superlatives.

Did you interrupt history?

The story goes back to my early Boy Scout days but I’ll come back to that. Ratan Tata told me about his grandfather’s Taj Mahal Palace in Bombay.

He chaired the India-South Africa CEO Forum and I was the deputy. Back in the day, British-owned hotels had a sign: “No dogs and no Indians allowed”.

Jamsetji Tata’s revenge was to build a jewel superior to anything the British could dream. In the ’70s, beach hiking was big with Boy Scouts. We’d reach uMhlanga dying of thirst. Apartheid oppression saw to it that we could not even get a bottle of water out of the five-star hotels, let alone frolic or camp on the uMhlanga beach.

You were stung by that?

(Purses lips.) I was hurt but I was inspired. The Radisson Blu brings my pain and my pleasure full circle, like the Tatas. How many black people in South Africa own five-star hotels? We do. Our 23 000 working-class shareholders do.

Does Oceans have an edge on the competition?

It’s in the attention to detail, the overall African touch. The musallah in the mall and the hotel with 40% of our rooms facing the Qiblah direction. Our Chinese visitors choose the Radisson as an act of patriotic affinity with the owners. The huge banqueting halls are ready for the big Indian weddings.

Economies are in turmoil. Are you a gambling man?

(He chuckles.) Fortune favours the brave. I must tell you about driving down to the Wild Coast when it was newly built. We would take a bottle of Fifth Avenue Cold Duck and joke about popping champagne at our own casino. My friends laughed at me, saying it will never happen. I learned from my meeting with the astronaut, Neil Armstrong as a 16-year-old Boy Scout – if you can dream it you can achieve it.

Is there an enabling environment for investors in Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal?

Too much red tape! Look at the roads. They should have been completed long ago. Some departments in the city are sharp. Others are anti-development.

This project will put at least R130 million a year into the city’s coffers. I applaud the GEPF (Government Employees Pension Fund) who control over R2.32 trillion and decided to invest in South Africa to create local jobs.

Is there a silver bullet for job creation?

Construction is the biggest job creator of any sector. Where there are cranes there are jobs.

Was everyone happy with this project?

There were 400 objections. And we listened to them all. To please one of the objectors we moved the tower blocks 120m apart from the original design and ended up with a much better view of the sea! (Pauses for air kisses and selfies with lunching ladies.)

Do you take an aerial view of the future?

I took the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest fashion brands up in a helicopter to gaze at the potential. When you have Gucci, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, big-spending tourists will follow.

What’s your biggest thrill?

New projects, I get bored easily. I want to make an impact all the time.

What are the three biggest trends for you right now?

Crypto in the casino industry. Tech is exploding all around. World-class design in everything because people first feast with their eyes before opening their wallets.

Reddy insists on paying for lunch. On our way out, a doormat is flipped over by the wind. He bends to turn it over. No job looks too big or too menial for a man who has interrupted history with his endless slate of iconic projects.

He points to the Real Housewives of Durban filming in a new salon and spa created by his wife, Sorisha Naidoo, at the ramp end of the Platinum Walk.

He’s a master publicist, figuring that the Showmax screening will carry the message of the Oceans to 200 countries.

BUSINESS tycoon and co-developer of the Oceans Mall, Vivian Reddy.