LAND developer, MCM Estates has started the development of its 100 hectare multi-million-dollar tourist resort in the Chesa area of Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central province.
The project, which will be constructed over a five-year period and requires an investment of up to US$30 million, will house conference facilities, an amusement park, and a wildlife sanctuary capped with the scenic views of Ruya River.
MCM Estates is also developing land for the construction of holiday homes.
MCM Estates group chief operating officer, Takunda Mujuru, said the massive project was part of the company’s diversification strategy.
MCM is primarily into the development of residential stands.
“If you look at most resort destinations in Zimbabwe they are singular in the things that they attract people with, in some places its waterfalls, mountains, animals, but we are having a go at a fist of its kind resort in Zimbabwe in a beautiful place called Chesa in Mt Darwin where we are bringing quite a lot of these attractions to one place,” Mujuru said.
“We are bringing a wildlife resort to Mt Darwin, we are also bringing conferencing facilities there, we are also bringing a very big theme park we are talking roller coaster rides, water parks that sort of thing, as well as quite a scaled amount of holiday accommodation
“The timeline that we are working with is around five years, in terms of the quantum of investment, the last time we sat down and did our numbers we are looking at a figure of around USD30 million worth all inclusive, so it’s a lot of work.”
- Govt to dispatch tourism attachés
- Zim, Zambia looking to preserve fish stocks
- Govt invites more airlines to Kariba
- Veld fires now national concern: Govt
Keep Reading
The resort will be designed as a self-sustaining ecosystem and comes following the launch of the 2025-2030 Tourism and Hospitality Industry policy by the government which, among other things, encourages private sector led development in the tourism sector.
Economic activity in the Chesa area has already started picking up as initial works of the project have kicked off while in the long run, increased benefits are expected to accrue to the local community.
“The downstream impact that the project will have on Mt Darwin, on Zimbabwe is massive, talk of employment, other businesses opening in the area just because of what we want to do,” Mujuru said.
Mujuru said MCM has also entered into a “landmark” engagement with Old Mutual that will see MCM clients being offered an insurance package that covers land purchases from the land developer.
The insurance scheme was tailor-made to cover MCM clients who buy land from the company through instalments.
According to Mujuru, this is meant to “protect the client’s investment in case something, for example, death occurs before they finish paying off their instalments.”.
“In life as they say nothing is certain except death and taxes, and it’s something that will come when you least expect it so with the nature of our (selling) model it is something we have encountered unfortunately and a lot of the times you have families that are left in distress because people have invested in this thing,” he said.
