Mellieha: Pergola Hotel wants to go higher

72 new rooms could be added to the Pergola Hotel with a request by Daniel Grima’s G3 Hospitality to add three new storeys to the existing Mellieħa hotel.

The seven-story hotel follows the height of the Triq Adenau public staircase, rising just one storey over Triq is-Snajjin, where its hotel pool enjoys direct views of the Mellieħa parish church.

The area is presently characterised by three-storey housing, while the hotel abuts on a scheduled Cold War underground flour mill built by the British in case of a nuclear attack, also found in Triq Snajjin.

The application, still at its initial stages, is an ‘outline permit’, meaning that the Planning Authority is first asked to assess the development in principle, including the proposed heights. The actual design of the extended hotel will be approved at a later stage through a full development application.

Photomontages of the impact on the surrounding neighbourhood and te sensitive views of the church, are expected during the processing of the application.

While a recent Deloitte study shows Malta needs over 4.7 million tourists over the next six years just to ensure full hotel bed capacity, new hotels are continuously being proposed in the face of market saturation.

Over the past weeks new applications for hotel development were presented in Xlendi, where a 14-storey hotel is being proposed, in Valletta on the site of the Mattia Preti house, and in St Julian’s on the site of Villa Sirdar.