Five floors are to be added to the former Alhambra cinema in Sliema, enlarging its current Zara outlet by a footprint of some 900 square metres, and making it one of the largest in Europe.

The current store is spread over two floors with a few flats overlying them. However, the air space behind them – the old cinema – belongs to the PG Holdings group, which run the Pavi and Pama supermarkets.

Read: Zara outlet to be one of largest in Europe

The application was approved by the Planning Authority on Friday and work is expected to commence in January, to be completed by the end of 2018. The existing store will only be closed for a brief period in autumn.

The design of the store has been entrusted to the architectural team of the franchiser, Inditex of Spain.

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