Fort San Salvatore in Kalkara, handed by former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff to his brother and four others, was on sale for €3.2 million last April, say private investors.
Interest in developing the fort for commercial purposes has been ongoing, and the 18th-century building is one of the sites suggested as an alternative to the controversial proposal to build a new university at Żonqor Point.
This newspaper revealed last week that one of Mr Mintoff’s last acts before resigning in 1958 was to give the fort to Prestressed Concrete Limited, a company owned by his brother. The ground rent was £100, payable to the Treasury in advance every six months.
The 1958 contract, tabled in Parliament last week, stipulated that the property be given to the company owners for use as a batching plant. It states the fort was given to Raymond Mintoff, Saviour Guillaumier, Louis Naudi, Frank Abela and Francis Dingli. In 1982, again during Mr Mintoff premiership, the emphyteusis for Fort San Salvatore was redeemed and became private property.
The fort – a national cultural heritage site – was then acquired for just Lm2,000 (€4,650). This newspaper is informed that the owners asked for €3.2 million to sell the fort to private investors last April.
The previous administration was also contacted by a well-known developer to create “a residential project” in the area. Fort San Salvatore is one of four sites proposed by the National Independent Forum for Sustainability. One of its recommendations was for a campus spread over three fortifications around Kalkara: Ricasoli, St Rocco and San Salvatore.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat made no mention of the fort’s private ownership when he said in Parliament he was considering a “serious proposal” for alternative sites for the so-called American University of Malta. The project is mired in controversy since the Żonqor site earmarked for the university is outside development zones.
Fort San Salvatore was built in 1724 on one of the bastions of the Cottonera Lines. It was used as a prisoner-of-war camp in World War I and an internment camp and kerosene depot in World War II.
It is the place in which 43 Maltese were kept by the British government before they were deported to Uganda, seen to this day as a gross historical injustice.
In later years, it became the site where Raymond Mintoff ended up building a thriving business. Apart from the fact that he was handed a historic fort to use as his company’s premises, he benefited from the socialist government’s vast nationalisation programme.
This is documented in the autobiography of entrepreneur Anġlu Xuereb, who decided to compete with the batching plant in the 1970s. He described the ownership of the existing batching plant by Mr Mintoff’s brother as the biggest challenge he faced.