Jolie, Pitt’s Namibian hideaway to be auctioned

THE Langstrand hotel at the coast which recently housed Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and their children for 80 days is to be sold on auction in South Africa at the end of this month.

The company which has put The Burning Shore on offer, placed a full-page advertisement in a Cape Town newspaper over the weekend, as well as on its website. The advertisements describe it as “the most celebrated boutique hotel in the world recently vacated by Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie”.”Some guests …paid N$2 million to use the prime property for 80 days,” the advertisement says.Interested buyers are called upon to make their bid “to own it for a lifetime”.The auctioneers promise a high occupancy at the hotel for the next six months.The small seaside hotel, which opened less than two years ago, was reportedly rented to Jolie and Pitt for N$2 million during their stay.No other guests were allowed during that period and those who had booked in advance were moved to nearby hotels.The Burning Shore, flanked by the desert and the sea, is situated between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.The small seaside hotel is advertised as an “architectural masterpiece with designer finishes, jacuzzi, white sands with frontline sea and private beach views and a deck area for al fresco dining”.”This is a rare chance for an investor to capitalise on this rare leisure-industry opportunity with unlimited possibilities,” the auction company says in its write-up.Jolie and Pitt spent a quiet two-and a-half months between April and June at the small hotel, away from the Hollywood paparazzi frenzy so that Jolie could give birth to the couple’s first biological child, Shiloh Nouvel, in Namibia at the end of May.Chief executive of auctioneering firm Claremart Auction Group, Jonathan Smiedt, would not comment yesterday on why the owner of the Burning Shore, Guenter Heimstaedt, a well-off farmer, had chosen to sell the property on auction.”The concept of auctioning a property rather than selling it conventionally through estate agents is gaining more and more ground internationally and in southern Africa,” was all Smiedt was prepared to tell The Namibian.The auction is scheduled to take place on August 30 in the ballroom of the posh Mount Nelson Hotel at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town, according to the advertisement.When contacted yesterday, Heimstaedt at first denied that his hotel had been advertised in South Africa for an auction.”I will sue you and your newspaper if you write anything about it,” he threatened.A little later the same day he changed his stance, saying the auctioneers had gone ahead with the advertisement without informing him.”I casually suggested to them sometime last year to put it on auction to see what price the hotel could fetch.I am surprised they have acted now and already set a date,” Heimstaedt said.He added that the auction would go ahead.The advertisements describe it as “the most celebrated boutique hotel in the world recently vacated by Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie”.”Some guests …paid N$2 million to use the prime property for 80 days,” the advertisement says.Interested buyers are called upon to make their bid “to own it for a lifetime”.The auctioneers promise a high occupancy at the hotel for the next six months.The small seaside hotel, which opened less than two years ago, was reportedly rented to Jolie and Pitt for N$2 million during their stay.No other guests were allowed during that period and those who had booked in advance were moved to nearby hotels.The Burning Shore, flanked by the desert and the sea, is situated between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. The small seaside hotel is advertised as an “architectural masterpiece with designer finishes, jacuzzi, white sands with frontline sea and private beach views and a deck area for al fresco dining”.”This is a rare chance for an investor to capitalise on this rare leisure-industry opportunity with unlimited possibilities,” the auction company says in its write-up.Jolie and Pitt spent a quiet two-and a-half months between April and June at the small hotel, away from the Hollywood paparazzi frenzy so that Jolie could give birth to the couple’s first biological child, Shiloh Nouvel, in Namibia at the end of May.Chief executive of auctioneering firm Claremart Auction Group, Jonathan Smiedt, would not comment yesterday on why the owner of the Burning Shore, Guenter Heimstaedt, a well-off farmer, had chosen to sell the property on auction.”The concept of auctioning a property rather than selling it conventionally through estate agents is gaining more and more ground internationally and in southern Africa,” was all Smiedt was prepared to tell The Namibian.The auction is scheduled to take place on August 30 in the ballroom of the posh Mount Nelson Hotel at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town, according to the advertisement.When contacted yesterday, Heimstaedt at first denied that his hotel had been advertised in South Africa for an auction.”I will sue you and your newspaper if you write anything about it,” he threatened.A little later the same day he changed his stance, saying the auctioneers had gone ahead with the advertisement without informing him. “I casually suggested to them sometime last year to put it on auction to see what price the hotel could fetch.I am surprised they have acted now and already set a date,” Heimstaedt said.He added that the auction would go ahead.