Building of Sh40 billion first sports city starts in Eldoret

Construction of East Africa’s first sports city has started in earnest following groundbreaking of the Sh40 billion leisure and property development project in Eldoret at the weekend.

The city, Sergoit Golf and Wildlife Resorts, is premised on the theme of sports, luxury living, leisure and recreation.

It is the largest single project by the private sector in western Kenya, giving the vast region a taste of the eight-year real estate market boom that has mainly concentrated in key cities — Nairobi and Mombasa.

The project will dot over 2,000 villas, three golf courses, a five-star hotel, a shopping mall, conference centre, a private hospital and a private airstrip, too. All these units will stand on a 3,100-acre land situated 15 kilometres north east of Eldoret town. The construction is set to run in four phases.

The sports city is expected to drive tourism in the western tourism circuit given that it also features a wildlife sanctuary. Sergoit Holdings Limited, the firm behind the project, has set 2016 as the date for completion. Each phase will take a year to finish and will be financed by private investors only.

“Our goal is that this project will be ready to host various teams going to Brazil for the Olympic Games in 2016. It will open this region to both sports and wildlife tourism,” Mr Joshua Chepkwony, the chairman of Sergoit Holdings said during the groundbreaking on Saturday.

Each phase will cost about Sh10 billion and the initial phase involves building 626 villas located near the Sergoit Hill — a tree-covered rocky outcrop with about 400 acres stretching on the flat grassland.

Already, the project has received the backing of financiers including Cooperative Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank who have lined up mortgage loans for interested buyers.

“We have already sold about 81 plots and we expect this to shoot up now that we have officially broken ground,” Mr Chepkwony said. Private developers can buy plots at a price of between two and five million shillings and put up the structures as laid out in the master plan.

Mr Chepkwony, who is also the chairman of Jamii Telecoms, said the resort will have high speed fibre connectivity as part of the infrastructure.

And just like Tatu City, the company will put up an independent management firm to build and manage physical infrastructure including the roads, electricity, water, waste drainage and fibre optic connectivity among others.

The golf city is co-owned by directors of Sergoit and private investors in the ratio of 52 to 48.   All property within the golf city will be built according to six pre-approved house designs and shareholders will enjoy free membership to the golf club and access to the Club House.

The leisure and golf resort city will feature scenic nature — a view of game and scenery, rock climbing spots, athletic training tracks and a water splash. The game sanctuary will have giraffes, antelopes and birds.

Sergon Holdings Limited is owned by 20 shareholders including Mr Francis Kollum — the CEO designate, and Mr Jason Kapkirwok, a former director of group strategy at Kenya Airways.