Controversial Riviera hotel sold to Frosch

The Riviera Hotel in Marfa is in the process of being sold by construction magnate Charles Polidano to FTI, a company owned by German company Frosch Touristik.

A promise of sale agreement has already been signed, FTI director Beppe Bugeja confirmed when contacted by MaltaToday.

Bugeja has denied rumours of any involvement by construction magnate Zaren Vassallo in the new venture, insisting that FTI is the sole company involved in the deal.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Vassallo denied he was buying the hotel and laughed off the suggestion. “I do not know what you are talking about.”

When asked if his collaborator, the former secretary-general of the Nationalist Party Joe Saliba was involved in the purchase, he answered: “I do not know, ask him.”

Attempts to contact Joe Saliba proved futile.

Zaren Vassallo has been involved in a buying spree ever since he sold his shareholding in a major Maltese company that was floated on the stock exchange in 2009. He raked in more than €20 million and since then has been involved in purchasing various companies.

In recent months, Charles Polidano had been seeking to sell the Riviera hotel, with his companies facing serious liquidity problems. The sale of the hotel will inject much needed capital into his companies.

The sale of the hotel is reported to be around €15 million, but this could not be confirmed.

When asked whether FTI intends to enlarge the present hotel, Bugeja replied that this could happen in the future “if the opportunity arises” but an expansion is not on the cards now. “We prefer doing one thing at a time,” Bugeja said.

The Riviera hotel, formerly the Solemar, was the centre of a planning controversy in the late 1990s and the early nineties.

Polidano first applied for an extension of the pre-existing Solermar hotel in 1997, but despite a negative recommendation by the Planning Directorate, the extension was approved. In 1998, Polidano applied for more but the application was duly refused in 2000. Despite the refusal, the expansion was still carried out illegally. In 2001, MEPA was asked to sanction the fait accompli.

The case caused wide embarrassment within MEPA itself, creating a strong rift between the board and planning experts. While the Planning Directorate called for a refusal arguing that the development was incompatible with the rural and coastal characteristics of the area also runs counter to the Structure Plan, the MEPA board proceeded to legalise the development after imposing a Lm200,000 (€460,000) fine on Polidano.

The hotel was also censored by MEPA auditor Joe Falzon for blocking public access to the so-called Hola beach.