The shutdown follows the permanent closure of the Root44 Restaurant\u2014a prestigious fine-dining establishment on the property\u2014earlier in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is with great sadness that we announce that Root44 will be closed until further notice,\u201d the Root44 Market said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis decision has not been made lightly. Sadly, jobs have been lost, dreams have been affected, and many families will feel the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDespite our efforts, we have received no support from the Stellenbosch Municipality during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Root44 is a 5.1-hectare property located on the R44 between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, and is a well-known tourism market in the area, originally built to showcase the wares of surrounding wine farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The market is located on Audacia farm in Stellenbosch, a millionaire hotspot surrounded by sweeping wine estates, including the historic Rust en Vrede.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its roots can be traced to big names such as billionaire banker Paul Harris, who co-owned the farm with farmer Trevor Strydom\u2014the original backers of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After seeing over R200 million of investment pumped into the market since 2016, the facility was put on the market by its original developers in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It featured a Wine Emporium, oyster bar, caf\u00e9 and full restaurant, all framed by the region\u2019s vineyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, it drew thousands of visitors each week to experience the bustling food markets, live music, retail stalls and family entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was positioned as “a flagship asset” for corporate brands or hospitality and tourism investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, its prestige came with a significant caveat: the property was not zoned for retail or hospitality, making it a tricky location to navigate, requiring approvals from the municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the municipality<\/strong><\/a>, the original development was granted rights in 2009 to develop a small tourist destination to showcase wines from local farms, which would become the Root44 Wine Emporium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in 2012, there was a further application to use the land for retail purposes. At the time, the Wine Emporium had not yet been established, so this was granted, becoming the Root44 Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2017, when the developers wanted to make the market a permanent feature, the municipality allowed this on condition that the original Wine Emporium plans be dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The municipality was of the view that the facility could manage only one or the other, not both, and expressed concern that a larger facility would continue to develop into a commercial node, disrupting the rural surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Root44’s popularity ultimately became its main hurdle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the development grew in popularity, more disputes arose, with complaints from the surrounding community<\/strong><\/a> about noise and the disruption of the peace becoming more common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Popular Cape Winelands market and wine emporium, Root44 in Stellenbosch, will be shutting down until further notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":831074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-865184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865187,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865184\/revisions\/865187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Root44 photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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