The Labour Party has purchased the former HSBC offices under Cospicua’s historic Rialto Theatre, the party’s CEO Randolph De Battista announced on Friday.

De Battista announced the news on Facebook, saying the Labour Party is now the official owner of the entire Rialto building.

“When we started, two, three people in silence in 2019, today, finally, after great perseverance, we have reached this result,” he wrote. 

The Rialto theatre shut down in 1988 and has remained virtually abandoned, save for one-off events, since then.

Plans to revamp it are however in the pipeline: a consortium led by concrete makers GP Borg and involving tuna farm lobbyist Charlon Gouder has applied with the Planning Authority to restore the building and turn it into a hotel, concert venue and restaurant, with a "multi-purpose" hall on its rooftop floor. 

The application raised concerns among residents and NGOs, who feared the planned venue would lead to loud music blaring across the area. The daughter of former Labour prime minister Dom Mintoff had also joined a long list of people objecting to plans to restore Cospicua’s historic Rialto Theatre.

In his post, De Battista thanked all those who came “before us” and to those who in 1983 had the vision to buy the theatre, which he described as a “national gem”. He said at the time, they wanted to buy the lower part but could not.

“Today, now that we have consolidated the  building, we can move to the next phase, which will be announced soon, so that this theatre can be enjoyed more by the Bormliza community, by artists and by everyone,” he said.