Montebellos and Massaleh: the unending saga of the Mistra mega-development

The site was to be turned into a 1,000-apartment project touted as “urban lifestyle at its best”, over 40,000 square metres of land and earmarked for completion in 2010. JPM Brothers formed Gemxija Crown Ltd, with Marem BV, the Dutch subsidiary of the Al Massaleh company. One of its former directors was Francis Vassallo, the former Central Bank governor, who is a director of Fimbank Group. Najeeb al Saleh is chairman of both Al Massaleh and Fimbank.

In the meantime, the Montebellos expanded their hold on the construction industry, with the acquisition of the Jerma Palace Hotel in Marsaskala from Libyan-owned Lafico, to also turn it into a high-end residential complex.

Their other main project was the A3 Tower in Paola, just outside the Addolorata cemetery, where they claimed the skyline with one of Malta’s highest towers. In the meantime, they purchased another hotel – the Galaxy in Depiro Street, Sliema – which remains unfinished.

A lack of cash flow must have plagued the development of the Mistra Heights project, held up by planning hiccups.

On 5 June, 2008 the MEPA board approved the outline development permit for the redevelopment of Mistra Village amid protests from NGOs who argued that the project is too big, creating a major visual impact and also increasing traffic, especially in Xemxija.

The European Commission then launched a review of the project, which comprised four high-rise towers, one of them 19 storeys high. Following a public outcry against the construction of a 19-storey tower, the latest Environmental Impact Assessment proposed its replacement with a “boomerang shaped” building stepping up from six to 11 and back to six floors.

Still, MEPA ignored the EIA’s conclusion that the project will still have a major impact on views from Mistra bay, despite the reduction in building heights.

Najeeb Al Saleh also had to step in to pay up some €750,000 in permits for MEPA, but the project then stalled again that same year in 2009.

As media interest on the vicissitudes of JPM Brothers, director Peter Montebello strove to assure the press that his projects were fully financed.

But in 2009, al Saleh’s Fimbank had to clarify that while his Kuwaiti real estate company was a shareholder in Gemxija, the bank had no direct relations with the Mistra project.

Montebello had insisted that Mistra was at a standstill because of planning bureaucracy, and that there were no negotiations for the Kuwaiti partners to take over. “How can we have problems financing this project if Fimbank is one of our partners?” Montebello was quoted as saying.

Fimbank issued a company announcement saying that it was neither a partner, nor a lender in the project.