SEMAFOR
After losing its Lagos beachside real estate to controversial government plans for a coastal highway, Nigeria’s Landmark Africa is working on plans to build two new West African beach properties, chief executive Paul Onwuanibe told Semafor Africa.
Onwuanibe said the company had received separate invitations, including one from the Gambian government and from three state governments in Nigeria’s southeast, to develop waterfront leisure hubs aimed at boosting tourism in those places. The two commissioned projects include a development proposed in Akwa Ibom, an oil-producing Nigerian state by the edge of the Atlantic ocean. It is expected to open before the end of the year while the Gambia project “will take a little bit longer,” he said.
The new developments, for which MOUs have been signed, will be wholly funded by Landmark at $5 million each while the land comes from the government partners. “My team met with the Gambian President’s envoy including the First Lady today to finalize plans,” Onwuanibe told Semafor Africa on Friday.
Akwa Ibom’s tourism commissioner, Charles Udoh, said on May 10 that the state was “seeking a partnership” with the company to develop a section of its shoreline for tourism.
Landmark is also “looking at a number of sites in Lagos” to build another leisure property. But that may be challenging because “we have not received any compensation yet” from the Nigerian government for its beach that was demolished, the CEO said.
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Nigeria knocked down leisure and entertainment structures on the Landmark beach in April, drawing the ire of tourism industry watchers who questioned the wisdom in destroying “the biggest tourism spot in Lagos” to build a road.
Visited by locals and international tourists, the beach was also a music concert venue, hosting performances by Nigeria’s leading artists over the years, including superstars Davido and Wizkid. Besides the beach, the broader space is a 9,000 sq. meter boulevard that includes a mall, event center, restaurants and cafes, including the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Landmark has owned the property since 2007.
Nigerian government officials said the beach was on the path of a proposed 700-kilometer highway that would connect the country’s southwest through Lagos to Calabar in the east. A notice for the beach’s demolition was served in March.
The highway, designed to have five lanes on each side, is estimated to cost $11 billion and be completed in eight years. It will be built by Hitech, a company owned by the Chagoury Group whose Lebanese-Nigerian proprietors are long-time allies of Bola Tinubu, the Nigerian president. The firm’s previous work in Nigeria includes Eko Atlantic City, a development modeled after Dubai and built on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean.
