No bidders for Marsa sports village

The planned sports village in Marsa has failed to attract any proposals from investors, forcing the government to seek ways of making the project "more attractive".

Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli said the Malta Sports Council  has called a meeting for developers who had expressed interest to discuss how to make the project "more attractive".

The original September 27 deadline for proposals had been extended by four weeks at the request of three of the five developers who had paid for the official documents and attended an information meeting. This notwithstanding, they did not go on to submit any proposals.

The government's plan is to extend the present Marsa sports facilities and create a state-of-the-art sports village in line with international standards. The facilities already include a golf course, a racecourse, an athletics track, a polo pitch, a private tennis club and a tract of turf pitches. The plan is to cater for about 51 sport disciplines.  

The outline plan for the area has already been cleared with the planning authority and 58,473 square metres – or 7.2 per cent of the footprint – can be built upon.

Mr Puli refused to compare the Marsa sports village with the proposed White Rocks sports and leisure village, saying they were "two separate projects which complemented each other" because they were intended to cater for different sport disciplines.

He said negotiations on the White Rocks project were ongoing.