A new valuation of large stretches of public land which the Corinthia Group wants to use for speculation purposes, is in its final stages but will only be presented to Parliament after next Saturday’s elections.
While Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi continues to refuse to give information about the ongoing valuation, industry sources said that preliminary reports by Colliers International – the global real estate company engaged by the government – shows that the deal will be very controversial.
“Preliminary reports on the new valuation of what is considered to be Malta’s most priced land are already making the rounds in government offices but will be kept under wraps at least until when the island goes to the polls,” sources familiar with the valuation said.
“Following the controversy over the cheap price with which the government sold the former ITS site to the DB Group – just €15 million – the government is aware that this will be an even bigger controversy and wants to keep the waters calm for now, for political expediency.”
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Officially, Dr Mizzi, entrusted by the prime minister to lead the negotiations with Corinthia over this public land, is refusing to reply to any questions.
Asked in Parliament by Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina to give details on how Colliers International has been selected for this second valuation and how much is it being paid, Dr Mizzi said that he cannot publish such information.
“The documents related to this company are commercially sensitive and confidential,” Dr Mizzi told Parliament in a curt reply.
Dr Mizzi had already ignored questions about who had selected Colliers International, whether the government will be publishing the valuation once ready and if the first valuation exercise, produced by Deloitte, has been scrapped.
A preliminary deal with the Corinthia Group had already been concluded last year.
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Apart from keeping the whole of the St George’s Bay peninsula for touristic purposes, mainly hotels, the government had agreed with the hotel chain to be given permission to build up to 100,000 square metres of apartments and offices for sale.
The public land involved, considered to be the best touristic location on the island, was passed on to the Corinthia Group through various contracts on a temporary basis and on condition that it was only to be used for their hotels.
However, while embarking on a project to modernise their existing hotels on the peninsula, the Pisani family, who controls the Corinthia Group, wanted to finance their new investment through the sale of apartments and offices which the government agreed to allow them to construct on prime public land.
According to the first negotiated plan, presented to Parliament last December by Dr Mizzi, Corinthia were only to pay a premium of €17 million over a long number of years for the concession.
Real estate agents had said that the current market price for the public land involved can fetch up to €700 million.