The site of the former White Rocks tourist complex in Bahar ic-Caghaq is to be transformed into a €200 million sports and leisure village, the Prime Minister announced this evening.

"The White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village will be hosting different sports disciplines, with the best design and facilities. Malta will have one of the biggest multi-sports facilities in southern Europe" Dr Gonzi told a hastily convened meeting with representatives of sports associations.

In economic terms, the project will be one of the biggest foreign investments in Malta and will create a minimum of 800 new jobs, Dr Gonzi said.

The project will feature venues for various sports, conference and leisure facilities, a 200-room hotel and up to 300 residential units.

The Prime Minister said this project was in keeping with the PN electoral promise to create new and modern sports facilities and the government's Vision 2015 plans, which included proposals for Malta to boost sports tourism.

Last year alone, thanks to government schemes, 22,000 bed nights were attributed to sports tourism, he said.

Dr Gonzi said this project was also important because it would finally see the replacement of the ruins of the old tourist complex with a new and modern facility. At the same time, the government was also healing another nearby environmental scar through the transformation of the former Maghtab dump into a family park.

This project, he said, was being realized because Malta had managed to ride out the international economic storm, to the extent that foreign investors had confidence in the country.

THE PROJECT BRIEF

The White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village will be financed, created, maintained and run by White Rocks Holding Company Limited (WRHCL) which is made up of Faulknerbrowns Architects, Gleeds, PMP Genesis, Mott MacDonalds, Cushman & Wakefield and Land Use Consultants, collectively experts in sports design, sports management, development and construction.

The project will be developed over five years from the granting of the full development permit.

It will provide a venue for a wide range of sports activities, the hosting of international sporting events, commercial and leisure facilities, a hotel to support sports tourism and a multi-ownership complex that will provide the island with a new lifestyle destination to complement the sporting activities.

The project will also feature considerable landscaped parklands and pedestrian areas which will also serve as a family leisure park.

Specifically, White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village shall include the following facilities:

A Rugby/multi-purpose stadium multi-purpose

Outdoor stadium, multi-purpose training pitches, tennis complex, beach

Sports facilities, and a BMX outdoor track.

A multi-purpose indoor facility with the capacity of hosting 15 simultaneous training sessions of different sports disciplines including basketball, volleyball, fencing, table tennis, table football, snooker, billiards, pool, handball, judo and other martial arts.

A Sports Science Centre to enhance local and foreign athletes' performance and also to monitor the rehabilitation of injured athletes.

A House of Sport, which meets the demands of the national sports organisations' for office space, shared meeting rooms and conference facilities;

A family park - landscaped parklands and pedestrian areas, outdoor gym, adventure park, a walking and jogging track and a cycling track;

A multi-ownership complex including a minimum 200-room 4-Star Hotel and a maximum of 300 residential accommodation units;

Commercial and leisure facilities which will be mostly situated below the family park; and Car parking facilities to support the activities at the site.

SPORTS OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The government said that through the White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village, it was pursuing the objectives to promote a national sport culture through facilitated access to sports events and sports programmes for all sectors of society.

It was also meeting the increasing demand for facilities being made by Maltese sporting organisations and exploiting the economic potential of sports tourism through the hosting of competitions, training camps and sports related conferences.

The village would also serve to enhance the performance of local athletes through the provision of international standard facilities and a sport science centre.

More details at www.opm.gov.mt/sports

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