The ITS campus in St George’s Bay will be vacated and moved to the former Air Malta headquarters in Luqa at a cost of at least €1.5 million so the DB Group can take over the site.
Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi said in December that “the cost for the temporary move will be incurred by the DB Group”, however, this newspaper has been informed that some of the kitchens and facilities forming ITS will be moved at the government’s expense.
According to Dr Mizzi, the temporary campus in Luqa will be used for three years until a new one is built in SmartCity. No permits are known to have been issued yet for the new ITS building at Ricasoli.
This newspaper is informed that tenders worth hundreds of thousands of euros were issued by the government a few weeks ago for work connected to the new Luqa temporary campus.
The DB Group will not pay for the whole transfer, only for the campus in St George’s Bay
One of the tenders – estimated at €600,000 and covering electrical, mechanical, construction and finishing works at the former Air Malta premises – was awarded to newly-formed company Idea Plan Ltd.
Asked for details on the relocation agreement, Arthur Gauci, the DB Group’s CEO, said that questions should be put to the Tourism Ministry.
A ministry spokesman pointed out that the DB Group would not be paying for the transfer of the whole ITS but only for the campus located in St George’s Bay.
The spokesman said that while the DB Group would pay about €4 million for the transfer, the management had decided to also move the other part of the campus in Pembroke, known as Martin Luther King, to Luqa. This move would be made at taxpayers’ expense, he noted.
“It was agreed that DB Group would pay for the costs related to the ITS St Julian’s, while the ITS would pay for the Martin Luther King campus move,” the spokes-man noted.
The Martin Luther King campus is a key part of the ITS set-up and includes various training facilities used by students at the St George’s Bay complex.
The ministry’s spokesman added that “it was also agreed that the temporary campus should also include eight additional classrooms, three extra labs, three more teaching kitchens and a 25 per cent increase in office space”.
ITS sources told this newspaper the decision that part of the move would be financed by the government had followed disagreements between the DB Group and ITS on the relocation.
The 24,000 square metres of public land at St George’s Bay was transferred to the DB Group following a deal negotiated under the stewardship of Dr Mizzi.
Although the site carried a market price of over €200 million according to a draft Paceville master plan, the government agreed to transfer the land for just €15 million, with payment terms staggered over seven years.
The DB Group has applied for permits from the Planning Auth-ority to build a mega hotel and a 37-storey residential tower, from which it estimates making at least €120 million.
Hundreds of Pembroke and Swieqi residents are objecting to the project.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com