11-storey hotel set to rise near University

Developer Mark Agius, a business associate of construction mogul Joseph Portelli, is asking for an extra floor on a recently-approved 10 storey-hotel, metres off the University of Malta entrance.

The 11-storey, three-star hotel is earmarked for the three-storey building that formerly housed the Mireva bookstore.

Yet to be constructed, the hotel project was approved in two stages – in December 2019 when the Planning Authority’s planning commission overruled a case officer’s negative recommendation to reject the permit, and in May 2022 when the hotel area was further extended.

The case officer had argued that the proposed hotel was in breach of the local plan and the policy on hotel heights.

The local plan does not list hotels as an “acceptable use” for the area. And the Class-3B hotel would run counter to the Height Limitation Adjustment Policy For Hotels, which grants an additional two storeys over and above local plan limits if the resultant design features a “high-quality product in keeping with the urban context and no blank walls are created.”

The case officer insisted the hotel would create n exposed blank party walls and negatively impact the area’s context, conflicting with the Strategic Plan’s aim to ensure that new developments improve amenity and pleasantness of place.

Din l-Art Ħelwa also objected to the “towering development in the very heart of this already densely built urban area,” which it described as completely overbearing on both the visual and social amenity of the existing context.

But the planning commission then chaired by architect Simon Saliba overruled the case officer, arguing that there were similar commitments for other hotels in the area.

The local plans zone the area for student accommodation, housing and additional student-related land uses including stationeries and bookshops and sets a height limit of four storeys and a semi-basement. But the same local plan allows one extra storey for hotels, while a new policy on hotel heights alone approved in 2014 allows another two floors. Planning guidelines from 2015 also translated this height into 28m, that is three metres higher than the hotel as approved in 2019. The case officer insisted that although the hotel conformed to this limit, extra storeys can only be added if these respected the context of the area.

Immediately following this first approval, Agius proceeded with an application to extend the hotel over a larger site, increasing the rooms to 72. Again the case officer said the development was in breach of the local plan, which excludes tourism development in this area. But in view of the PA’s decision to approve the original application, the case officer had no choice but to recommend the second application for approval.

Now less than 3 years after the original approval, Agius is requesting a permit for another floor.

All three applications were presented by architect Maria Schembri Grima, who is regularly involved in projects proposed by Portelli’s business empire while also serving as chairman of the state-appointed Building and Construction Agency, which regulates the construction sector.