€300 million Evans building concession award scrapped

The award of a €300 million government concession to turn the Evan’s building in Valletta into a luxury hotel has been scrapped by the public contracts review board.

In a decision on Thursday, the board ruled that the award of the concession to Valletta Luxury Projects, a consortium between Eden Leisure and businessman Mark Weingard, must be scrapped, as the company failed to “validly and unequivocally” state the total value of its bid.

The concession covers the regeneration, design, management, operation, maintenance, and eventual hand back of the Evans Building in Valletta as a “superior quality tourism accommodation establishment”.

The board found that Valletta Luxury Project’s submitted financial offer for the 65-year concession was of €1.2 million, significantly lower than any of the competing bids and also lower than the minimum bid amount.

While the tender evaluation committee interpreted this €1.2 million bid as an annual payment over the 65-year period, taking the actual bid up to €78 million, the board ruled that this extrapolation exercise was tantamount to the committee altering the submitted bid, in violation of procurement law.

According to the committee, the €1.2 million figure was a “manifest clerical error” as the annual concession fee was inputted by the company in the field reserved for the 65-year total.

Other sections of Valletta Luxury Project’s bid document mentioned the total figure of €78 million, therefore no extrapolation, conjecture or information external to the submitted documents was needed, the committee argued.

This argument failed to hold water with the board, leading it to declare the 2024 tender award to Valletta Luxury Projects is “vitiated” and annulled.

It ordered that the contracting authority, Malta Strategic Partnership Projects Limited, re-evaluate the tender in strict conformity with the request for proposals.

The board ordered that Valletta Luxury Project’s bid be completely disqualified from the re-evaluation.

‘Not to be dumb’

When evaluating the competing bids, the committee asked Valletta Luxury Projects to “correct” the €1.2 million bid, stating to the contract review board that it would have been “dumb and passive” not to accept the €78 million offer.

Lawyer Ryan Pace, representing Katari Hospitality JV, questioned how a public process can proceed based not on what the tender document states, but on the desire not to appear “dumb”.

Even if the committee believed Valletta Luxury Project’s offer to be advantageous, Pace argued that the process must be governed strictly by the tender document.

Pace said the committee misinterpreted its role by acting on a right that was not granted by the tender.

Once such an approach is allowed, Pace concluded that everyone becomes “dumb”.

The Evans Building, located near Fort St Elmo at the tip of Valletta is regarded as a prime site for tourism. 

It was originally built in 1952 to serve as university laboratories. The site is some 3,327 square metres large with a four-storey building that has a built-up footprint of 1,080 square metres per floor.

It also includes the remains of the Nibbia Chapel, the Chapel of the Bones and the Anatomical Theatre. 

Valletta residents have repeatedly campaigned to turn Evans Building into a home for the elderly, or be utilised for some other civic purpose, as long as it remains for the use of the people.