Updated | Allied Newspapers to sell iconic Strickland House in Valletta

Updated with company spokesperson's reaction

Strickland House in Valletta is up for sale and the company that owns it, Allied Newspapers, is accepting offers for the building until 23 March.

The company had been planning to sell the Valletta building. It is unclear what today's asking price is but industry sources told MaltaToday the company had been reportedly offered €13.5 million a few months ago.

However, a company spokesperson, reacting to the story, categorically denied that the building's asking price had been €13.5m.

Allied Newspapers moved its printing press out of the building to its new premises in Mriehel in 2011. The Times of Malta newsroom and other administrative staff vacated the Valletta building in the summer of 2017.

In the tender brief, Strickland House is described as the “largest, privately-owned building for sale in Valletta”.

Strickland House is five floors high and occupies a prime location opposite Auberge de Castille, something the sellers are clearly vaunting. “The unique and unparalleled location of this one-of-a-kind building, right next to Auberge de Castille, places it in very close proximity to the parliament building, government ministries and administrative offices, as well as the city’s commercial and cultural hubs,” the tender says.

The building measures approximately 6,800 square metres and the roof level has an additional built area of approximately 265 square metres.

Allied Newspapers is owned by the Strickland Foundation.

Although there is a long-standing historical link between Strickland House and Valletta, the existing structure was only built after 1979 when Labour Party thugs set the building on fire.

That fateful day – 15 October, 1979 – became known as Black Monday. Labour Party supporters who attended a mass rally in Valletta went on a rampage by first burning down Strickland House, while employees were still inside, and then ransacking Opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami’s family home in Birkirkara.

The only remnant of that fateful Monday at Strickland House was a blackened wall on the topmost floor of the building that was retained behind a Perspex sheet and a small plaque recording the date.