Seven-storey hotel proposed opposite Sacred Heart school in St Julian’s

A seven-storey hotel set to include 23 rooms is being proposed opposite the gate of the Sacred Heart school in St Julian’s.

As proposed the development will include a reception and breakfast area at ground floor, 23 rooms on six overlying floors, one of which receded and a pool at roof level.  An indoor pool and gym will be located in an excavated basement.

The development only includes two parking spaces.

The height of the proposed ‘pencil’ development will change the streetscape of this mainly residential street, creating two large blank party walls on both sides.

Residents objecting to the development fear that with no provision of parking for hotel guests the development will further exacerbate the already dire parking problems in this street especially since the location of a hotel will be opposite the main gate of a school.

As proposed the hotel conforms to the height foreseen in the development guidelines approved in 2015 reaching a height of 21m in an area characterized by two-storey developments.

This is the third hotel to be proposed in the area. The PA has already approved a hotel in the listed Cloisters building on Mrabat Street, whose garden will be developed in to an apartment block.

Another guesthouse approved on Triq is-Sorijiet in the vicinity of Casa Leone, had to be downscaled from eight to five storeys, due to concerns raised by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage.