Updated at 4.30pm with Partit Demokratiku statement

City Centre, a controversial major investment in St George's Bay "is set to be the most sophisticated place to go in Malta, according to the db group.

The investment was announced by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the chairman of db Group Silvio Debono.

The development will feature extensive leisure, shopping and conference facilities as well as retail and residential facilities and a 315-room Hard Rock Hotel.

The group said this would be "three hotels in one" featuring hotels for adults, families and suites. The retail and leisure sections would feature international brands and high end restaurants.

Mr Debono said the group will pay €60m for the land and will invest €300m on the project. The valuation has long been the source of controversy.

The project will be built on the site of the current Institute for Tourism Studies, which will be moved to SmartCity.

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Konrad Mizzi said the concession agreement was signed yesterday. The valuation of the land, he said, followed a model which would be adopted for other developments in the future. 

Dr Muscat said this investment came as Malta was celebrating the fact that it had surpassed the figure of two million tourist arrivals per year. This would be a quality step for Malta aimed at attracting higher quality tourists as well as providing more jobs and leisure and retail opportunities for the Maltese.

The land is being transferred on a 99-year emphyeutical grant. "We are making sure that the developer pays a fair price," Dr Muscat said. Land valuation was made by Deloitte which also proposed the model to be used for the future. 

The ground rent will be revised if the revised Paceville masterplan allows more development on the site.   

"This is the biggest investment by a Maltese in Malta and it will create 1,500 new jobs," Dr Muscat said. The contract will be made public.

He said the new ITS in SmartCity would be a totally new-well resourced facility including a hotel. 

Speaking during a later press briefing, a dp Group representative said part of the financing for the project was already in place. A bank guarantee had been deposited and a seven-and-a-half million performance guarantee would be put in place for the duration of the project.

The company is contractually obliged to complete the project within five years of the necessary permits being issued. The group has an internal target of completing the project within three years.

A representative from Deloitte, who worked on the ITS land valuation, said that current market prices had been used.

He said comparisons could not be made with the €54 million paid to the government for the Fort Cambridge development.

The Fort Cambridge development was an almost purely residential one, whereas this development was a mixed-use one which carried higher risks.

Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Deborah Schembri said the government would be forging ahead with the Paceville master plan. She said the fact that the plan had not yet been completed did not mean that all projects had to be put on hold.

The ITS site, behind the Corinthia Marina hotel, as it looks at present.

Partit Demokratiku asks government to come clean on sale of ITS building

In a statement in the afternoon, the Partit Demokratiku asked the government to come clean on the sale of the ITS building.

The same land, it said, was valued at some €212 million in the Paceville masterplan which stated that land comprising part of the ITS site and the Corinthia Marina Hotel was valued at €8,500 per square metre.

The authors of the report indicated that the valuation prices for eventual expropriation were “provided by Malta Government”.

The people, PD said, deserved to know if the site was being sold for a pittance given that it was public land. I