One of the South African wine industry’s most iconic symbols, the KWV La Concorde head-office on Paarl’s main road, is to be vacated by KWV staff within the next few months. According to a wine industry insider, KWV staff will move to the vast buildings the company owns closer to the railway line.
“La Concorde will cease to house the KWV’s activities,” the source said. “However, this will not come as a surprise to anyone who has visited La Concorde over the past few months ?+¦-+???+¦-ú?-¦?+¦-ú?+¦+¦ inside it is as deserted as the Overlook Hotel in the movie, The Shining.”
La Concorde’s impressive facade has become synonymous with the South African wine industry as it was for decades seen on the label of the country’s (then) most prolific exporter, namely the KWV. Erected in 1958, La Concorde is also seen as an aesthetically pleasing face of the Cape wine industry, and it would be a great pity if the building is lost to the wine world.
Rumours of converting La Concorde into a hotel have been bandied about, but developers maintain that converting the office space to rooms and recreation centres would be too costly.
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