Sliema Tower Road: new 15-storey hotel proposed

A 15-storey hotel is being proposed instead of the eight-storey Carlton Hotel at the corner of Tower Road, Old College Street, and Nazzarene Street in Sliema.

As proposed the new hotel will rise to the same height of the neighbouring Plaza Regency Hotel, which had an additional three floors approved last year.

But the development will create a higher blank party-wall on one of the last remaining traditional residential buildings in Tower Road. It will also increase the building density on Old College Street and Nazzarene Street.

The height limitation for the area is eight storeys with semi-basement on Tower Road, and six floors with semi-basement on Old College Street and Nazzarene Street.

But hotels in Sliema are eligible to three extra storeys above local plan height limits: one foreseen in the local plan itself and another two foreseen in a policy for hotel heights approved in 2014.

Matalec Limited, owned by Jean Pierre Saliba, is proposing the hotel. The hotel will cater for 76 suites over 14 floors, and have a rooftop pool.

A similar application was rejected in 2020 because the height of the proposed hotel, specifically the elevations on the relatively narrow Old College Street and Nazzarene Street, exceeded maximum heights allowed by the width of the street as required by sanitary regulations. Sanitary regulations stipulate that the height of a building should not exceed three times the width of the street in which it is located.

This decision was confirmed by the PA’s appeals tribunal in March 2021, which concluded that the lack of conformity to sanitary regulations cannot be overlooked in safeguarding good urban planning. The tribunal also referred to the disproportion in height created by the hotel on Nazzarene Street.