Stalled Metropolis high-rise in Gzira considering further excavation

The developers of the 33-storey high-rise project Metropolis, in Gzira, have said their project is stalled over the need to create more parking spaces around the tower’s perimeter.

Just days before the 2015 local elections, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat officially laid the foundation stone for the high-rise – years after excavation had taken place – but since then the project has been dormant.

But a representative of the Metropolis project, Aidan Barker, has denied that the company has not secured financing for the iconic skyscraper.

“We are actually studying the prospect of excavating a further two storeys below sea level, which would incur quite a considerable cost, if we go ahead,” Barker said, who explained that the company has been instructed to provide more parking spaces.

The project, owned by Libyan entrepreneur Jalal Husni Bey – part of the Libyan conglomerate HB Group – was expected to inject €120 million in the economy and to create 400 jobs by 2019 upon completion.

But the company says it has been held up by a long legal tussle over how to best provide additional parking spaces.

Currently, the gaping hole across the 6,000sq.m plot on Testaferrata Street, is at a depth of three to four storeys at the lower end, with enough space for an underlying car park for 500 bays.

But Barker says that in 2016, the company was informed that the land surrounding the project was not government-owned and could not guarantee that any excavation would not be contested.

So the land was requisitioned by the government, and then a tender was issued by the Lands Authority in October 2016 so that Metropolis could obtain access to the space beneath the roads.

“The purpose of the tender was to gain right of access to this part of the land. We are now paying the government of Malta for access to this land, specifically so that we excavate beneath and create more parking spaces,” Barker said.

However, the development hit another snag over the legal uncertainty as to whether excavating beneath property belonging to third parties could be allowed in this case.

“After winning the tender for the area comprising half the roads running along the perimeter, we could reach an agreement on the terms of the tender, specifically with respect to the penalties incurred on delays tied to the excavation for the creation of these new parking spaces,” Barker said.

Barker said that any change to the overall design of the project will have to get approval from the Planning Authority. “The resolution on this issue would be to excavate further down, beneath sea level, but this would come at a considerable cost.”