Updated at 12.15pm with independent MP Marlene Farrugia's comments
The developers of the Townsquare high-rise project are going to start engaging with residents now that they have a permit for their controversial development – and have started to try to set the record straight about “misinformation” on the project.
In the first interview the Gasan family has given to the media, Townsquare Sliema Ltd director Andrew Ganado says building a 38-storey tower would create an open space in the heart of the town nearly equivalent in size to the Independence Gardens.
He says this would mean far fewer residents than the 26 units of nine storeys each that would otherwise have been built on the site.
Mr Ganado emphasised that the land in question had been purchased by his grandfather in 1956 and that it was always on the cards for development.
“This is not a choice between going up or nothing; it is a choice between up or across,” he said, adding that Joseph Gasan Senior had bought the site knowing he would have to wait until 2000 for the Union Club lease to expire.
During the interview, Mr Ganado tackled a range of issues, from parking and traffic to mitigation measures during construction. The misconceptions that he sought to tackle were not limited to the project itself either. He also explained that Townsquare was owned by the descendants of Joseph Gasan Senior and not by the Gasan Group, adding that many of Townsquare’s shareholders were not shareholders of the group. Columnist Martin Scicluna recently called for the group to be boycotted.
Make history and transform land into a green area, independent MP tells owner
Replying on Facebook, independent MP Marlene Farrugia told Mr Ganado that whatever he said on the Townsquare matter would come across as “wooden, heartless and sorely unpatriotic”.
Even though his ancestors might have bought the land, she said, they did not buy, nor exclusively inherit the sky above it - which belonged to all Maltese and Gozitans equally.
“The sky and our precious heritage skyline belongs to us and to future generations, as does the right to enjoy a peaceful uncluttered, uncongested life on an island kissed so generously by the sun.
“When your forefathers acquired that land, dear Mr Ganado, they did not acquire the right to throw the rest of us permanently in the shadow of a massive structure, the presence of which from its very conception, will only serve to make our lives worse not better.”
She invited Mr Ganado to lead by example and make history transforming the plot into into a beautifully laid out green and lush open space for your countrymen.