Puli suggests media scared off investors in Marsa sports village

Parliamentary secretary for sports, youth and culture Clyde Puli has suggested media reports on the lack of interest from businesses in developing the Marsa sports village, may have scared off investors.

Puli, addressing the press on the past four years' of achievements in sports and culture as part of an ongoing government roadshow, was asked by MaltaToday to justify the protracted negotiations on the White Rocks sports village, and the lack of interest to develop Marsa.

"Sometimes I ask myself whether reports appearing in the media could have dampened interest and scared off prospective investors," Puli said, without referring to which reports exactly.

Puli may have been referring to reports in MaltaToday when a request by entrepreneur and Nationalist donor Nazzareno Vassallo to change MEPA local plans to accommodate a 20-storey business centre at the former Lowenbrau factory site - as part of the revision of planning policies related to land in the environs of the Marsa Sports complex - had been turned down by the planning authority.

It is now being suggested that Vassallo expressed interest in the Marsa sports complex. Vassallo has now applied to develop a supermarket in the area.

MEPA turned down the request, insisting that the local plan review was exclusively related to the extension of sports facilities and that the proposed uses of the Lowenbrau site were not aimed at widening the range of sports facilities on the site, but simply to increase commercial development without any obvious link to the sports complex itself.

Clyde Puli said that the government's call for expression of interest at Marsa, was seen by five investors but none of them had submitted it by the closing date. "We are currently evaluating and see how we can amend it and then reopen the call."

On the other hand, Puli reported "substantial progress" in the negotiations for the White Rocks sports village when asked by MaltaToday why such projects are announced without guarantees of completion.

"We announced the start of the negotiations for the simple reason we wanted to be transparent. If we hadn't announced it, then it would have looked like we were negotiating secretively.

"Negotiations are still ongoing but there has been a substantial progress. Our aim is to conclude the negotiations by end of this legislature. However, we will not close the negotiations until we ascertain that we have the best."

The ambitious project was launched in June last year by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, announcing that negotiations were to be concluded by the end of 2010, and that government would "not be spending a cent" on the project, which is estimated to create 800 new jobs

Negotiations intended to finalise the proposed €200 million development of the former White Rocks Complex into a sports village had reportedly come to a standstill.

Don Brister, a director and shareholder within the White Rocks Holding Company, said: "We honestly don't know what is holding government on this, we are very keen to go ahead with the project, but something internal within government seems to be stalling all progress."

Brister, who is often engaged in talks with government over the project could not specify the "internal problem" but said that government had already been presented with the proof of financing one year ago, and that a lot of work had been done in the UK with regards to designs, to the extent that "the consortium is ready to go to MEPA."