Anglu Xuereb ditches Marsa plan for 37-storey tower

Entrepreneur Angelo Xuereb has withdrawn an application to build a 37-storey tower in Marsa on a plot of land in an industrial area along the busy 13 December Avenue.

Xuereb declared being sole owner of the land in question in the application, presented on behalf of Marine World Limited. The application is still at its initial stages and is currently being vetted by the Planning Authority before being issued for public consultation.

However, the ownership claim was disputed by the noble Trapani Galea, Testaferrata Bonici and Galea Testaferrata families. In a strongly worded legal letter sent on 5 May, the three families called on Xuereb to remove from plans “any access to the site from the client’s property”. The families also claimed that Xuereb had previously tried to buy this land from them but that they had refused to sell. The application was withdrawn on 21 May.

Plans submitted showed a 37-storey tower, with the ground floor occupying 7,500sq.m, acting as a podium, with the first floor being 2,650sq.m, then with each floor reducing in size.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had warned that the development would have had a major visual impact not just on the site and its immediate surroundings, but also on localities around the Harbour area.

According to local plan changes approved last year, high-rise development will be allowed on a 100,850 sq.m zone in Marsa that has been dubbed the ‘Marsa Park Development Area and Business Hub’. The area includes the site proposed by Xuereb.

The area can now cater for a mix of retail, office and light industrial development over a floor space of 225,000sq.m that includes the whole tract between Triq it-Tigrija in Qormi and Triq Dicembru 13, and extends to Albert Town.