Shop tenants forced to make way for the new St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum in Valletta are up in arms saying that, unlike the City Gate project, no compensation or alternate premises were offered.
The anger is such that the issue may well escalate to a full-blown legal battle if no solution is found in the coming days.
Approved by the planning watchdog last January, the project will involve the extension and refurbishment of the existing museum whose access will be relocated to Merchants Street. This will entail the use of an adjacent property the government had been leasing out to commercial outlets as far back as 1929.
An eviction order issued earlier this year by the Land Department gave the retailers in question two months’ time to vacate the premises in preparation for the start of works. Though the deadline expired last Thursday, it was business as usual yesterday as they decided to defy the order.
The issue may escalate to a full-blown legal battle
“While we acknowledge that the government has every right to terminate the lease that is renewed every year, we are expecting the same treatment reserved in the past for the City Gate tenants who had to move out for the Renzo Piano project,” they argue.
They said they were still waiting to meet Planning Parliamentary Deborah Schembri.
“It seems the authorities are not interested at all to address the situation even though this might result in our business folding,” they said.
A spokeswoman for Dr Schembri insisted it was not a case of eviction but a notification that the yearly lease would no longer be renewed. She said the project had to be completed by 2018 when Valletta would be hosting major events as part of its European Culture Capital status.
“The government is considering its options in view of the nature of the title held by the lessees and will be in a position to declare the way forward after the conclusion of talks with the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation, which are underway,” the spokeswoman said, declining to give further details.
Former land minister Jason Azzopardi confirmed that, in the case of City Gate, the Nationalist government had come to a settlement with about 25 tenants.
“This was not an exception because this procedure was followed since 1987 each time the government was forced to terminate a lease to make way for a capital project and offer alternative premises or financial compensation,” he said. A case in point, he added, was the termination of the lease of the Phoenicia Glass Blowers on Manoel Island as part of the Midi project some 25 years ago.
“In the case of City Gate, I took the initiative myself to contact the tenants involved and came to an agreement in consultation with the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU and the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry,” Dr Azzopardi added. He pointed out that it was no coincidence that none of the City Gate shop owners had taken the government to court.
A retailer affected by the St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum project last week unsuccessfully applied for a court injunction to block the eviction.
“As things stand, our only remaining option seems to be to take the government to court, not to block the project but to be given the same treatment offered to others,” a tenant’s lawyer told this newspaper.
The shop owners admit they know their situation could already be compromised, still, they are determined to live to fight another day.