Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia slammed the deal with the Corinthia Group, rebutting arguments raised by the developers to justify the price they would be paying for the land, sources said.
Dr Delia was reacting to a presentation by Corinthia Group chairman Alfred Pisani during a meeting with the PN Parliamentary Group on Thursday, the sources said.
The Sunday Times of Malta reported last week that the group would be paying the government €17 million to build up to 100,000 square metres of residential and office property in St George’s Bay. According to real estate agents, the land carries a market price tag of at least €700 million.
Corinthia’s parent company, International Hotel Investments, said in a statement earlier this month its proposal for St George’s Bay was not about the sale of land but solely the proposed extension of potential uses. It planned to deliver “a luxury holistic six-star environment for its new Corinthia hotel”, matching the brand’s standards worldwide.
The sources said Dr Delia refused to accept the argument this was a simple change of use of land subject to tourism investment, insisting this was clearly an outright sale of public land.
He argued that the proposed footprint for real estate would be double that proposed built-up area for tourism purposes, and that the Opposition would not accept that such public land was transferred for a pittance.
Dr Delia pointed out he was all out for projects such as the six-star property proposed by the Corinthia Group but that could not happen by giving public land on the cheap, the sources said.
“We are confident that Corinthia’s agreement to guarantee payments to government of circa €52 million will ultimately show up to be an equitable and fair balance in relation to potential returns from the development of a maximum of 100,000 square metres of real estate, without even taking into account risks associated to the substantial investment Corinthia is contractually obliged to inject in two new luxury hotels,” the group had said defending the deal.