Hotel wants eight-storey permit opposite Sacred Heart convent

The one-time quite environs around Casa Leone and the Sacred Heart Convent in St Julian’s are facing the prospect of a 49-room hotel constructed on eight levels, right across the school and convent instead of a two-storey, 19th century house.

The new development is being proposed by Core Properties, along Triq is-Sorijiet and Triq il-Kunvent tas-Sorijiet, in the vicinity of the back garden of The Cloisters, a stately home now being excavated for a seven-storey apartment block and boutique hotel.

Plans for the new hotel envisage the partial restoration of the existing townhouse, including its façade, the demolition of parts of the building, and the construction of five full floors and recessed top floor.

The development will also include four basement levels for services, a spa and a breakfast area.

The application follows a strategy employed by developers to first apply for a residential development, and then re-apply for an increase in the number of storeys by applying for a hotel.

In act, the Planning Authority has already issued a permit to the same developers to partly demolish the two-storey dwellings and replace them with a six-floor apartment block, one of which receded. The latest application effectively adds two more storeys on what was approved in 2017.

The local plan designates the site with a height limitation of four floors, or an overall height of 20.8m, which under policies introduced in 2015 now translates to five floors and a penthouse level.

Current policies also permit hotels to develop two extra storeys over what is allowed in local plans.

The block consists of various dwellings constructed in different periods, with the earliest one being a townhouse facing Triq il-Qalb Imqaddsa, dating to the 19th century.

The permit issued in 2017 also foresaw the retention of the façade of the old townhouse after the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had objected to its demolition.