In 1999, the government issued a request for proposals for a development (RFF) of the White Rocks area. The document was made up of a very detailed brief including the provision to build a tourist development with a maximum of 1,000 beds.
There were five consortia that submitted an offer, two of which failed to overcome the first hurdle, leaving three in the running. The evaluation process was a lengthy one and, eventually, the government called in the first preference bidder to negotiate terms. Michael Refalo, then Minister of Tourism, was responsible for the negotiations. Following several months of negotiations, the government stopped negotiations with the first bidder and started talks with the second preferred bidder, the consortium known as Costa San Andrea (CSA).
The project submitted by CSA was a unique, eco sensitive and low level project, which respected in full the RFP and agreement was reached with the government after several months on the payment of a premium and annual ground rent and the wording of a final draft contract.
The government insisted that, prior to the signing of the contract, the consortium had to obtain a full development permit from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. The CSA consortium, mindful of the time lag between submission of an application to Mepa and the permit being approved, sought and received from Dr Refalo confirmation in writing that the draft agreement reached will not be changed after Mepa approves the permit.
The consortium commenced the process by meeting the request of Mepa to have an economic impact assessment drawn up. At that time, EIAs were something rather new and the CSA consultants and Mepa started wading through the mass of reports, consultations, detailed studies and other documents, a process that took the best part of 18 months to complete.
Looking back to the requirements of the EIA, these included planning out new road layouts so that entrance and exit to/from site would be safe, having a full and detailed management plan for the cutting of rock and reclamation of same, drawing up full and detailed building management phases and so on and so forth. The list was exhaustive. The EIA report ended up consisting of four volumes of detailed plans, reports and proposals/workings. Rightly so, the consortium felt it had performed admirably to produce all this in just 18 months.
After a number of public consultations and presentations, a hearing date was finally set up for Mepa to decide on the granting of an outline planning permit and this was issued on November 28, 2003. By the time the permit had been issued there had been a change of minister and Dr Refalo was replaced by Francis Zammit Dimech as Tourism Minister.
Following the granting of the Mepa permit, Dr Zammit Dimech informed the CSA consortium that the draft agreement struck with Dr Refalo on behalf of the government of Malta was to be changed and that new clauses were to be inserted and others deleted. CSA protested with the government that the goal posts were being moved and this on top of the fact that the tourism industry conditions had also changed dramatically after the 9/11 tragedy in September 2001. At this point, CSA, seeking to move ahead with the project, suggested to the government that the new conditions being insisted upon by Dr Zammit Dimech would be accepted provided a tiny percentage (below 10 per cent in built-up volume terms) of the project would consist of real estate.
The government refused outright that there should be a real estate project, small as it might be, at White Rocks and stated that there will "never be a real estate project" there. The CSA consortium then asked the government to honour the agreement that had been reached with Dr Refalo and, to date, CSA is still awaiting a government decision to honour Dr Refalo's commitment on behalf of the government not to change the contract. The consortium is still willing and waiting to sign the contract agreed with Dr Refalo many years ago.
A sudden fast forward and, like a thunderbolt on a clear summer day, thge government announces that an agreement was reached with some foreign consortium to develop the White Rocks as a sports centre and, more as an afterthought then a statement, that a multi-ownership development was now, but not then, being allowed to make the project economically feasible.
Now, our understanding of multi-ownership is that any one apartment or dwelling would not be sold to one single individual or company but would be sold to a minimum of four different persons or entities, being another variant of the age-old time share concept with the difference that, instead of buying a week, one buys a month or, possibly, more.
In this frivolous, carnival-like, vuvuzela era, when trumpeting is the order of the day, the government has been punting this development as being a super sports investment with a great deal of foreign investment - some reports suggest a €200 million development.
Naturally, continues the government's argument, no one is going to invest in a sports facility development without getting some help from Malta and, in return for this sports investment, the government of Malta proposes to pass on 221,000 square metres (circa 220 tumoli) of the finest tracts of prime real estate in the Maltese islands for free and the right to build 300 residential units, which, in the latest press reviews and government statements, have metamorphosised from the original multi-ownership to that of an outright real estate sale.
To the CSA consortium this sounds like the Maltese investors are being sold down the proverbial river in favour of so-called "preferred foreign investors".
It is incredible in what shoddy manner is the Maltese government treating Maltese investors and the disdain and near-contempt being shown towards them. The CSA consortium maintains that there are still contractual obligations in place between it and the government. Furthermore, the consortium argues that these contractual obligations had been made after a long, financially costly, arduous and difficult bureaucratic process.
If the government was really keen on having a sports centre at the White Rocks, the project of the CSA consortium could have easily been amended to include such sports facilities, given that a percentage of real estate development was being permitted. Indeed, with 300 residential units up for sale, the sports facilities that could be offered by CSA would be outstandingly superior to what is being proposed at present by the usurping Johnny-come-latelys as the economic return of selling 300 prime properties allows for a massive profit that allows much more to be done than is being offered at present.
CSA firmly believes it has the capacity, knowledge and ability, as well as still having a valid Mepa outline permit in place for this project, that qualify it for the task to build a superior sports complex to cater for those activities e being proposed together with a 250-room hotel, including 300 units of real estate in the purest sense of the word. CSA is calling on the government to honour its written commitments and stop discriminating against the Maltese investor.
The author is director of Costa San Andrea Ltd.