Parliamentary secretary hopes for fast-tracking of White Rocks sports village

Puli was speaking on Radio 101 yesterday morning. “Much of the development is terraced and beneath the road level, which means only 30% of the project will be visible from the road.”

The derelict White Rocks complex in will be revived into a full-blown sports and leisure village, financed entirely by a UK consortium for €200 million at zero cost to the government for the construction, operation and maintenance of the facilities.

It is being fully financed by White Rocks Holding Company Ltd and its financial partner Resolution Property plc, a major UK real estate fund.

The project is expected to cater for some 40 sporting disciplines, and includes a rugby stadium.

It will also include 300 residential units. Puli has gone on record stating that without the accommodation, the project will not be feasible. “That is why we had to compensate with the units. The financial model would not work without this and the land is the price the government was ready to sacrifice for sports.”

In exchange for the construction, operation and maintenance to international standards of the sports village, the government will be giving the investor 221,000 square metres of coastal area.

The consortium behind the project include: Mott McDonald, which carried out the studies on wind energy generation in Malta; Land Use Consultants, which carried out the EIA for the botched golf course in Rabat; Gleeds, which was involved in ‘brewery redevelopment’ in Malta; Cushman and Wakefield, which have carried out work for the Malta Maritime Authority.

Together, along with Faulkner Real Estate and prime movers PMP Genesis, the same consortium was already involved in a real estate project in Romania.

The Labour Party has asked Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to give more details on the White Rocks sports village project in tonight’s parliament sitting.

Labour MPs Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, Evarist Bartolo and Chris Agius said the PL was in favour of new, productive and environmentally sensitive investment.

The White Rocks complex in Pembroke has been abandoned for the past 15 years, and so far no concrete commitment was ever made to regenerate the former holiday complex.

“Labour welcomes this project, and understands that there is a sporting element that is badly needed in this country. We hope there will be active consultation with sporting associations, and that the sporting element will not be relegated because of other speculative and property interests,” the MPs said.

The Labour MPs said that public projects involving public land must be transparent, and open to competition.

Alternattiva Demokratika also welcomed the project, with its spokesperson for sustainable development Carmel Cacopardo expressing his hope that the project will be in line with the government’s policy of sustainability as stated on the inauguration of the current session of Parliament in 2008.

“AD assumes that since it has been declared by Government that the environment is one of its policy pillars, it has already taken into consideration the fact that the White Rocks Area borders a Special Area of Conservation which of its very nature limits the type of development and activities permissible. This is one of the duties which Malta has assumed through EU membership as it was this same government which identified this area.”