The former home of the Times of Malta at Strickland House in Valletta is set to be demolished to make way for a luxury apartment complex. 

Hili Company, which acquired the St Paul’s Street property from the Allied Group in December, plans to redevelop the existing building into 50 apartments over eight floors, two of them receded, as well as a cafeteria and five levels of underground parking. 

The company is describing the development as “Valletta’s only luxury residential complex, comprising high-end apartments, with concierge service and car parking facilities”.

Designs for the building’s façade, by architect Martin Xuereb, envisage a mix of open and traditional closed balconies, with timber apertures and wrought iron railings, in stark contrast to the current austere aesthetic.

Hili Company said the building, located at the highest point of Valletta and just opposite the Auberge de Castille, was “widely acknowledged as one of Malta’s finest” and said the project would be “the only new build of its quality and scale in Valletta”. 

The proposal, being published this week for public consultation by the Planning Authority, is yet to be assessed. 

Purchased by Lord Strickland in 1930 to host his printing press, Strickland House served as home to the Times of Malta from the newspaper’s founding in 1935 until 2017, when all operations were moved out of Valletta to the current premises in Mrieħel. 

The original building withstood the ravages of World War II, despite being bombed twice, but was burned down by Labour Party supporters in October 1979 after a mass rally in what came to be known as Black Monday.  

Although the printing press was destroyed, the newspaper was published as usual the following day from another press, retaining its record of never having missed an issue. 

A charred black wall on the building’s top floor, which most recently hosted the Times of Malta newsroom, was retained behind perspex with a plaque marking the 1979 event.