Suncoast Casino is awaiting judgement on their eviction of the popular Centre Court Casino.
An urgent application has been brought by the owners of the Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World to the Durban High Court. They are hoping to evict the popular Centre Court restaurant so that they can build a R35 million extension to the gaming floor.
On Monday the case was brought before Judge Jacqui Henriques who reserved judgment. According to the court papers, Michael Dowsley, Tsogo Sun’s executive director, said that the lease agreement had been cancelled in February 2011. After the lease was cancelled Tsogo Sun began proceedings to evict the restaurant.
According to the casino the restaurant had breached the terms of the agreement as it had failed to pay rent on time on numerous occasions over the past few years and at least 16 letters of demand had been sent.
Dowsley said that after meetings with the restaurant’s owners they withdrew the court action and reinstated the lease on a monthly basis. In November 2011 the restaurant was given notice that its lease was being terminated and it had to move out.
One of the restaurant’s directors, Panayiotis Economou, said that they were model tenants. He claimed that the cancellation of the lease is not valid and the real purpose is to make the restaurant agree to relocation. Economou said that the casino is expecting the restaurant to “shut down a large business, retrench 76 employees and abandon its initial costs. The applicant seeks to destroy the business without any attempt to compensate it.”
Economou further argued that the municipality had refused Tsogo Sun permission to extend the casino floor because its integrated development plan would have to be changed and the city’s strategic projects unit would have to be consulted. Furthermore, the Gambling Board has not approved the extension.
