85% of Marsa residents unaware of 16-storey high-rise

A social impact assessment for a proposed 16-storey tower set to visually dominate the Marsa junction near the abandoned match factory, has revealed that 85% of Marsa residents did not even know about the project.

The so-called Marsa Park Area has already been designated as a location where high-rise buildings are permitted for the “gradual regeneration of the area”.

So far the only plans presented are the 16-storey tower by property developer Neville Agius, a renowned antiquarian and philantropist.

Yet when informed about the project, a majority of Marsa residents, 57%, “approved” or “somewhat approved” the project even if only 14% “liked” the high-rise aspect of the project while 38% said they “disliked” it.

Agius’s tower was proposed in 2017 as a high-rise block to house a showroom and cafeteria on the ground floor, with overlying office development, and a three-level underground car park for 136 spaces.

The project’s visual impact study shows the high-rise will generate “adverse visual and landscape impacts” given the low-lying surroundings. The extent of impact is subject to vary depending on the view point location. Yet it still claims the landscaped public space should provide “an improved aesthetic appeal to the area”.

AIS consultants said in their project decription sytatement that “aesthetically appealing views of the Marsa Sports Complex and the Grand Harbour Area”, will be an “important selling point” for office tenants.

The public open space with landscaping is also said to contribute towards the regeneration of Marsa and Albert Town areas.

Study findings

The social impact study, by Misco, was carried out in collaboration with sociologist Maria Brown and includes a quantitative questionnaire, based on a random sample of 151 residents living in the vicinity of the project. The interviews were held in winter 2019.

Having a tall building of 16 floors was the component that attracted the highest rates of dislike (38.4% - 58 participants), although a higher 47.7% (72 respondents) stated this did not make a difference to them.

However, 44.4% (67) said there would be no positive impact and 12.6% (19) said they did not know.

The vast majority (84.8%) were not even aware of the proposed development. When informed about the project proposal, 23.8% (36) said they totally approved, 32.5% (49) said they somewhat approved, 23.2% (35) said it did not make a difference to them, 7.9% (12) said they somewhat disapproved and 12.6% (19) said they totally disapproved.

The embellishment of the locality was the most popular main reason justifying approval (21.9% - 33 respondents) as well as the most frequently mentioned ‘most positive impact’ (22.5% - 34 respondents).

The best-liked component was the cafeteria (53.0% - 80 respondents), followed by underground parking (50.3% - 76 respondents), CCTV (23.8% - 36 respondents) and planting of trees (20.5% - 31 respondents).

The study called for collaboration with the local council and other community stakeholders, including schools, NGOs and the business community based on corporate social responsibility initiatives rather than tokenism. It also said this collaboration should stimulate and support economic and social vitality in a sustainable manner, and prevent social isolation – particularly of the elderly – but also the younger generations who might be tempted to move out of Marsa.

It listed possible CSR initiatives as investment in a health centre in the tall building itself, possibly in partnership with the NGO centre in the locality, and investment in an old people’s home, possibly adopting the “integration model” where a community home hosts elderly and persons from ethnic minorities to stimulate “intergenerational interaction and integration”.

Marsa high-rise area

In 2018 Corinthia Palace Hotel Ltd had presented an application to replace the Marsa matchbox factory with a five-storey multipurpose centre, which includes both offices and shops. But the application was later withdrawn.

Another application presented in its place is still under wraps with plans still unavailable to the public. An application for a 37-storey high rise by Angelo Xuereb on a neighbouring site was later withdrawn.

A traffic impact assessment for the Agius tower did not find any noticeable adverse effects on the surrounding road network (Triq is-Salib tal-Marsa, Triq it-Tiġrija, Triq Belt il-Ħazna and the slip roads from the Ħamrun Bypass) with the junctions having ample spare capacity.