Mercury House owners seek permit to demolish telephone exchange

Gozitan entrepreneur Joe Portelli, the sole owner of Mercury Contracting Projects Ltd, which will build the Mercury House high-rise, has requested a permit to demolish the Paceville telephone exchange building, excavate the site and construct a boundary wall along St George’s Road.

It is on this site, which Portelli owns, that the controversial Paceville masterplan has earmarked a 35-floor high-rise that will serve as a “prime office location” for the coastal town, the highest of nine towers projected for the area.

Residential uses will be mostly located in another tower with retail shops and a hotel providing complementary uses at podium levels.

Mercury House will see an extra 44,370 square metres of office space and 26,100 square metres of residential development, to see its total floor space area increase from just 11,081 square metres to 87,000, an increase of 685%. The development will require 2,442 parking spaces.

In June, five months before the masterplan was presented, Portelli had already presented an application on another area presently occupied by a few residential villas next to the Intercontinental Hotel, which has also been identified for “mixed development” in the Paceville masterplan. 

The application for the ‘Gateway’ high-rise envisages the proposed demolition of an existing villa, the construction of four levels of underground car park, and 15 floors of development consisting of a hotel with amenities, retail outlets, office space and 50 studio apartments.

Portelli has now presented a new application to commence the first stage of this “comprehensive project” which includes the excavation of four levels of parking and the demolition of existing dwellings.

This area has also been identified in the Paceville masterplan for mixed-use development including office use, hotel uses and residential apartments. The floor area will grow on this site will grow from just 3,405 square metres to  26,314 square metres – an increase of 672%.

The masterplan states that development in the area should  “comprise a relatively low rise building complex”. However, “an important local landmark” welcoming people into Paceville can also be proposed.  

The Paceville masterplan was devised by global consultants Mott MacDonald and Broadway Malyan. But Mott MacDonald had previously provided preliminary, high-level advisory work for the proposed Mercury Tower in St Julian’s.

The UK firm had verbally informed Planning Authority executive chairman Johann Buttigieg about their work on engineering reports for the construction of Mercury House in Paceville, with the PA chairman telling them to proceed with their masterplan consultancy.

Planning parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri later told the House environmental and development planning committee that the government had not been told about the firm’s dual roles, when Mott MacDonald was accused of holding a conflict of interest in devising the Paceville plan.

The government is carrying out a review of the work carried out by the firm hired as lead consultant for the Paceville master plan.