The former Farmers’ Wine building in Burmarrad, which is outside development zone, was yesterday inaugurated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as a commercial centre following a €10 million refurbishment project.

The permit for the development had been made possible through the involvement of the Land Department, which lawyers had told the Times of Malta in September was “legally irregular”.

The site could only be used for agricultural activities until 2063 as it was public land given to the Farmer’s Wine Co-operative in 1965 on emphyteusis to be used for wine production. The cooperative sold the emphytheusis for €815,000 in 2008 to BCBT Properties, a company in which Burmarrad Commercials is a main shareholder. At that point, the condition of its use for agricultural activities still stood.

Dr Muscat said that the project had improved the area and was an example of the type of projects his government wanted to encourage, ones in which derelict structures were regenerated. 

Mario Gauci, one of the directors of BCBT, said that the previous structure had been abandoned for a number of years and had been the target of vandals over and over again.  The old structure was dangerous and was unfortunately being used as a dumping site.  The regeneration project used recycled material from the old building.

The newly inaugurated project, he said, maintained the overall appearance of the old winery with the use of limestone and introduced several green measures such as thermal roof insulation, insulated apertures, specifically designed PV panels and the used of LEDs to lower electrical consumption within the building.  

The investment in the area also included the rehabilitation of an old reservoir for the harvesting of rain water, to eventually be used for irrigation of trees and areas included in the landscaping project. 

The project was managed by Architect Joe Grech.