No conclusion on White Rocks despite commitment in October to end ‘within weeks’

A spokesman for Castille has told this paper that “negotiations regarding the White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village have not been concluded", with details of their outcome yet to be given to parliament.

Auditors KPMG and Camilleri Preziosi advocates, were paid for their assistance on negotiations and legal advice respectively, with the White Rocks Holding Co. Ltd, a British real estate and sports business consortium.

The firms were identified in a paper laid in parliament listing all the ministry’s direct orders, after it had previously refused to divulge the members of the negotiating committee on the White Rocks complex.

KPMG was paid €160 an hour for 340 hours from July to December 2010 – a total of €54,708. Camilleri Preziosi were paid €133,930 for the six-month period, but Castille’s admission now ups the cost of the negotiations.

Sports consultants Navitas recently conducted research on the potential market for pre-season tours by European football clubs to White Rocks Sports Village in Malta.

This research will be used to shape the facility mix and inform the business planning for the development.

According to government’s plans, the new consortium will be allowed to build 300 residential units alongside a sports complex and rugby stadium, in an area already committed by a development brief that does not allow any real estate. The brief was issued by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) in 1995 and is still in force to this day.

But the tenderers of a 1995 development brief for White Rocks had already been refused to develop residential units on the holiday complex. Now, the government is giving that opportunity to a foreign consortium by direct order.

The Costa San Andrea consortium had jointly approached Lawrence Gonzi in 2004 to discuss the possibility of adding real estate to the proposed hotel complex at White Rocks. But the government stuck to the brief’s line that no real estate should be built on the site.

After that meeting, the discussions fell through and no approach was made to the bidders to reactivate talks.

Consequently, the announcement that White Rocks Holding Co. Ltd, a consortium of British realtors and architects, will now be transferred over 220,000 square metres of land – estimated by some observers at a value of €500 million – in return for a €200 million investment in a sports complex, has surprised the local business community.

A spokesperson for the prime minister has already said that 1995 tender was a hotel development that was unrelated and “completely different” to the project for a sports village announced this month.

“The investors, in return for a lease – not sale – agreement, shall be responsible and pay for the construction, finishing and equipping, of the sports facilities and the family park which will all be government-owned on completion and used by local sport organisations. Added to this, the investors shall bear the costs for the operation and maintenance of the facilities during the period of the lease.”

Shortly after Finance Minister Tonio Fenech presented this year’s budget last October, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had stressed that the project had not been included with other infrastructural works in the budget because it was going to be self-financing.

“Profits from the project would be invested in top-class sports facilities that would benefit athletes and encourage sports tourism,” he said.