Hotel next to Tigné church will rise to 14 floors

The Sliema Marina Hotel will rise to 14 storeys from the current eight after the Planning Authority gave its go-ahead.

The permit was approved after the developers redesigned the hotel to include a 2.6 metre set back for the three upper floors to mitigate the creation of a higher blank party wall abutting on the nearby Jesus of Nazareth church.

The hotel is located just one building away from the church.

The Sliema local council had warned that the Jesus of Nazareth church, which has survived as a low-rise oasis between higher developments,will be “completely dwarfed” with this development. 

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had also expressed concern on the proposed development as this would be “drastically impacting views of the scheduled church and the streetscape”.

The hotel is situated one building away from the Jesus of Nazareth church

The guardian of cultural monuments had described this as “an unacceptable impact”.

The Superintendence called for lower heights and volumes, “through terracing and through appropriate redesign”.

But the case officer’s report described the design of the building as “very contemporary and an interesting architectural statement, which complements the designation of the area”.

According to the case officer report the first 11 floors of the hotel will be accommodated in the same height of the current eight floors.

The hotel’s height will effectively increase from its current 35 metres to 45 metres.