A derelict site in Ħal Ferħ, at Golden Bay, will be transformed into an €80 million luxurious tourist complex, the project being cleared by the planning authority, yesterday.
Headed by hotelier Winston J. Zahra of Island Hotels Group, the project will include the demolition of the existing Ħal-Ferħ complex and the building of a hotel, a car park and widening of the adjacent road.
During a three-hour hearing, Mr Zahra said his vision was to create a project to change something disused into something new with an “emphasis on quality and not quantity”.
Saying the concept was something that did not yet exist in the tourism industry, the luxury hotel would be exclusive having a superior touch, he explained to the planning authority board, which unanimously approved the project.
“We want it to be a ‘less is more’ approach with the least impact possible on the environment. We wanted a visionary design. We have been in this industry for 25 years and want to look back in 20 years’ time and say we created something good,” he said.
The abandoned site, next to the Golden Sands Hotel also owned by Island Hotels, had “huge potential”.
The project, which would be developed with The Heavenly Collection, would create about 300 jobs aside from another 350 generated during the project development, Mr Zahra said.
The site covers 102,700 square metres, of which 17,000 will be built up. Some 3,000 square metres of land would be given to upgrade the road network so that none of the surrounding fields would be touched, he said.
About 12,000 square metres surrounding the project will be transformed into an external garden that will screen the hotel.
It will have a total of 228 units with pools and bars, spa and 293 underground parking spaces, all in a dynamic flowing “ribbon building”. Another 330 spaces will be available, outside the Ħal Ferħ site, on land leased to the Scouts Association.
A chapel within the complex will be restored and incorporated in the project, together with a small watercourse.
The project meets the planning guidelines set out in the 2008 Ħal Ferħ Development Brief. “We created a completely different project, which is environmentally friendly to a level that has not yet been seen,” Mr Zahra said.
Architect Peter Zammit explained that the site had already been developed and built as a military camp. In the 1970s, it was converted to a tourism site but stopped operating a number of years ago.
A planning officer added that the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee had said the fabric of mili-tary buildings in the lower part of the property were not “of historic value”.
Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, the board imposed a planning gain of €20,000 for the restoration of the barracks in the area known as the Upper Camp, located further up from the scouts camping site, as well as a bank guarantee of €230,000.