Last year saw a number of projects and policies approved and those which take off this year will generate considerable activity. However, some of them remain a question mark. Vanessa Macdonald updated the major ones.
Marsamxett Tunnel
AX Holdings was the only bidder for a project which will see a €10 million tunnel dug at sea level linking Grand Harbour and Marsamxett areas – but negotiations will not start until later this month.
The tunnel would go under the peninsula at a point between the Grand Hotel Excelsior and the current ferry landing, and emerge by the old Customs Building – meaning that passengers would be able to get straight to the capital via the Barrakka lift. The next stop would be Cottonera. Digging the tunnel will cause minimal disruption as all the work will be taking place underneath Valletta.
The man behind the project, group chairman Anġlu Xuereb, said that AX Holdings and its partner, Captain Morgan cruises, envisaged using river-type boats with glass roofs plying the route. These could take as many as 200 people, with the group estimating an annual 1.5 million using the service.
“We have done extensive homework, so as soon as we conclude negotiations and Mepa gives us the green light, we could complete the project within just 18 months,” he said.
“We are clearly anxious to get going as we want to be up and running by 2017 as it will bring new life to Grand Harbour – especially Cottonera and Dock One, and the Valletta Waterfront. We also see it as a multiplier for other investment, such as a park and ride with a shuttle to the ferry or a link with the sightseeing hop-on, hop-off bus.”
Corinthia six-star hotel
The Corinthia Group’s €400 million mega-development in St George’s Bay may launch its planning process in 2016 – although the group has so far said nothing with regards to time frames.
The Corinthia Group acquired the Radisson as part of its takeover of the Island Hotels Group, and will use this and its existing hotels to develop two high-luxury hotels, a beachfront lido and another ‘lifestyle’ hotel for corporate visitors on the 76,000-square-metre area.
Group chairman Alfred Pisani has been a passionate exponent of bringing the level of tourism in Malta upmarket.
“Our project at St George’s Bay is part of Malta’s future. We, as are many other Maltese entrepreneurs, are carrying out such projects aiming to achieve the highest standards that will appeal to the most discerning clientele.
“Ultimately, we Maltese will be the main beneficiaries of our own success. Higher standards will give us the strength to demand higher room rates and still provide value for money.
“Collectively, we own an island that is unique in the world because of our location, our climate, our heritage and history, together with our family values that assure warmth and security. Above all, we have an individual ability to create something out of very little. It is this style that has made the Maltese tremendously inventive.
“We will continue to develop our island with a greater appreciation of these values and we shall progress to achieve standards that are among the best in the world.”
Up for sale
Banif has yet to reveal who paid €18.4 million for the 78.46 per cent shareholding held by its Portuguese principal, while Lombard is still waiting to see what will happen to the shareholding held by Legacy Laiki as the sale of its assets have been mired in a dispute between the Central Bank of Cyprus as the Resolution Authority and the former administrator.
GO is also up for sale, as EITML (known in Malta as Tecom) announced its intention last July to sell its 60 per cent shareholding, as is Air Malta, with the imminent sale of some of its shareholding to Etihad.
Marsa Shipbuilding
In September 2015, Ablecare Oilfield Services signed a memorandum of understanding with the government after it was chosen to take over the 175,000-square metre Malta Shipbuilding site, investing €55 million to turn it into a maritime hub, over and above the lease concession.
The company has been using part of the site since October 2013 for oil rig maintenance but it is itching to conclude negotiations so that it can take over the rest of the site, which will be used to store heavy machinery and equipment, as well as offer logistic support for the oil and gas exploration industry.
Once the negotiations arecompleted, a parliamentary resolution will be required.
Ablecare managing director Paul Abela was upbeat that the deal would be finalised soon: “Following the signing of the MOU in the last quarter of 2015, the parties deepened negotiations and will be reaching the final stages of such negotiations imminently.”
Manoel Island
Will 2016 be the year that the Manoel Island project gets off the ground? When Midi Malta’s interim results were released last August, they included just one terse line stating the company was in discussion with “third parties” who had expressed an interest in the project – an idea first mooted in May 2014 – but nothing has been forthcoming about the elusive investors.
The company has now confirmed that it has engaged international consultants “to assist in the preparation of a revised master plan and will continue to pursue various avenues to identify the ideal strategic partner to ensure that the Manoel Island development is executed in the most efficient manner. The new plans will aim at creating a unique development that does justice both to the site and to Malta in general.”
Meanwhile, the Midi project is in full swing at Tigné Point with €65 million worth of construction work on the north phase of the development moving at a very steady pace. The residential block Q1 (on the Qui-si-Sana side of the development, behind Fort Tigné) comprising 39 seafront apartments, was all sold off-plan and delivered on time and on budget during 2015. The latest residential phase, known as Q2, is currently under construction and works at penthouse level are about to commence shortly. Q2 apartments should be completed by early 2018.
Works are also progressing well on Tigné Point’s new €40 million flagship commercial development, The Centre, a 14,000-square-metre purpose-built office block. Midi anticipates that the business centre should be completed during the latter half of 2017.
Life Sciences Park
The scaffolding has been removed and neuroscience company AAT Research has started moving in but it is not clear how many other tenants the Life Sciences Park will host.
In October 2014, Malta Enterprise said it was at an “advanced stage of discussions” with a number of companies – but so far, there has been disappointingly little news about the park in San Ġwann, which replaced Malta Enterprise’s offices.
Malta Enterprise was hoping to attract sectors interested in setting up operations in a broad range of subsectors and niches, from bio-electronics to genome sequencing, from bioinformatics to the production of isotopes for PET scanners, among others. The park started off in 2011 as the €30 million BioMalta project under the previous legislature, and was meant to be completed by 2014.
The BioMalta Foundation was formed to establish a blueprint for the life sciences industry in Malta. The original project included considerably more than the current footprint but was put on hold until the first tenants moved in.
Metropolis
Is the turmoil in Libya – where the main investor Jalal Husni Bey comes from – holding back the Metropolis project? “No,” company spokesman Aidan Barker said. “That is not the limiting factor... It is the car parking extension.”
The Metropolis Plaza in Gżira – currently a very deep hole – is apparently waiting patiently to find out whether its bid to extend its underground car park under neighbouring roads will be successful. The reworked design was finally given a full development permit by Mepa for the €120 million project in November 2014. Mr Barker said the developer was still waiting to find out who owns the land – most likely the government – and what the terms would be for being able to access it.
To further complicate matters, changes were made to Mepa regulations which means that the designs could incorporate a further 6,000 square metres. “We are reassessing the regulatory changes as we would clearly want to maximise the value of the project… Even though this would entail even more car parking,” he added wryly.
White Rocks
Let us hope it is going to be a case of ‘third time lucky’ for the 45-hectare White Rocks complex, which has been gradually falling into ruin since the British left in 1979.
The first attempt to find a new use for it in 1995 ended up with Costa San Andrea Ltd, a consortium made up of Maltese businessmen and Spanish hotel operator Sol Melia, as the preferred bidder with a €40 million investment. But over the years, a stand-off developed with the government over whether the tourist development could include real estate and the whole project was abandoned.
In 2010, the PN government came up with an even better idea: a sports complex with an investment of €200 million – but it also came unstuck over the percentage of the site that would be dedicated to real estate.
The most recent attempt to get some economic value out of the site was launched in October 2014. This time, the site is not aimed exclusively at tourism development but caved in to pragmatic commercial feasibility and allows luxury units and a “high-quality lifestyle community village”.
Eleven expressions of interest were received and two went on to actually submit proposals by the December 11, 2015, deadline: White Rocks Development Company and International Trade Holdings Co. KSC.
The Evaluation and Adjudication Committee is now assessing the proposals, with separate sub-committees to evaluate the technical and financial packages. The former has just held its first meeting while the second is in the process of being set up. Concurrently, a due diligence exercise will be conducted by the Malta Financial Services Authority.
Economy Minister Chris Cardona said the White Rocks Malta project represents “a major investment and business opportunity”.
“It will expand the Maltese economy through value-added activities, job creation and the development of Maltese human capital. This investment, which will be entirely undertaken by the private sector, is viewed as supporting the tourism industry through the promotion of Malta as an upmarket tourism destination.
“Furthermore, it is part of an overall government strategy to develop the planned location using rigid sustainable development concepts based on green construction principles that will protect and conserve the important natural resources, including agricultural land, ecological and archaeological/historical areas and the undeveloped coastline.”