Irish tycoon's palatial hotel in line of fire

Paschal Phelan featured aliens in his multimillion-dollar restaurant in New York, and at his hotel in Cape Town the nouveau riche ate sushi off scantily dressed models.

The high-flying Irish businessman loves the colour purple and likes to sleep in a giant pod-like bed with fabric from Harrods. Guests at his five-star Cape Royale Hotel in Green Point slip into dreamland under duvets stuffed with silk, luxuriating between 300-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets.

It also boasts "a pool bar offering views of Cape Town harbour and Table Mountain, as well as a modern gym featuring state-of-the-art cardiovascular equipment".

But Phelan is now fighting efforts to close the Green Point hotel until a series of alleged zoning violations are rectified.

Phelan is the developer of the hotel and a trustee of its body corporate, which has been under administration since 2013 when a judge found him and his co-trustee guilty of "fiduciary failings".

The hotel was the site of the now-defunct ZAR Lounge nightclub, run by controversial businessmen and former convicts Kenny Kunene and Gayton McKenzie, where patrons ate sushi off the bodies of models.

The administrator of the hotel body corporate, Simon Woolley of Nolands Forensics, earlier this month brought an application in the High Court in Cape Town to extend the period of administration.

He said in the application that he was bringing a separate action - which has yet to be heard - seeking an interdict to block Phelan from running the hotel until he complies with zoning regulations.

In his court papers Woolley said the hotel was "operating unlawfully from the property" which "constitutes a criminal offence". He said "the use of the property as a hotel poses a health, safety and fire hazard" which could compromise the R680-million insurance policy.

"As the building is currently approved and built, there are material concerns as to aspects of the fire-safety design and compliance, which represents a material risk to life safety," the court papers read.

"The hotel and restaurants are in direct contravention of the approved plans for the building in respect of fire safety."

Woolley said he had raised the noncompliance issues with the City of Cape Town and escalated his concerns to the deputy-mayor's office, but the city had yet to indicate what it planned to do.

Phelan is opposing Woolley's application to extend the period of administration.

"The first year of the administration was a fundamental failure, with not one of the important tasks having been completed in terms of the appointment; in particular, no accounts were provided," Phelan said in court papers.

"Instead of performing his duties ... [Woolley] devoted himself, for example, to maligning me and causing a journalist ... to write an article which made defamatory comments."

The court is yet to rule.

Phelan told the Sunday Times this week that the City of Cape Town, as well as his company's own "expert town planner", confirmed that the operation of the hotel "is and always has been perfectly lawful".

Phelan said the hotel was a successful business, generating more than R50-million a year.

"What a pathetic waste of time, money and investor discouragement, in a beautiful land with 26% unemployment. [Woolley's company] should hang its head in shame," said Phelan.

Phelan has been turning heads for years. In 1999 the New York Times wrote about his $15-million theme restaurant in Manhattan, Mars 2112.

"A flying saucer is frozen in flight outside the restaurant's glass front doors. Inside is a shiny, slender space that looks like a Greyhound bus station designed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration eggheads," the paper said.

"Visitors are issued Martian Federation visas and ushered to gates to await shuttles to Mars." The restaurant, in Times Square, closed in 2012.

In 2010 Phelan opened up his penthouse to the Sunday Times and posed for photographs in his bedroom.

Of his unique bed he said: "I love purple. It's my favourite colour, and when I found the fabric I knew it would be perfect. So the bed came first, the fabric second and then everything else was built around it."

nombembep@sundaytimes.co.za