A major residential and business development project on the site of Mercury House - the old telephone exchange in Paceville - got even bigger on Thursday.
The board of the Planning Authority approved plans for the building of a 19-storey hotel instead of what was planned to be a five-storey structure. It will rise alongside a tower, now in an advanced stage of construction, which has been given a permit to grow by an additional two floors to 33.
Also approved on Thursday were a new nine-storey residential block and a bigger underground car park having a total of 717 parking slots.
The board also approved the demolition of the GO Exchange building in order to excavate the site for an entertainment arena.
An impression of the completed project. Mercury House itself sits at the bottom right corner of the tower.Historic Mercury House, albeit dwarfed by the new structures, will be restored.
The project had been masterminded by construction magnate Joseph Portelli.
The two storeys at the top of the tower will be an amenity floor and a receded roofing structure, bringing its total height to 121.66m above street level, the board was told.
The newly approved 19-storey hotel will have 130 rooms over a total footprint of 6464sqm. It will also use a refurbished underground vault which become its spa.
The new nine-storey residential building, to be known as Mercury Suites, will have a footprint of 2190sqm.
Forty-six per cent of the site, equivalent to 4300 sqm will be open public spaces and will be added to the open space approved in phase 1 of the project. This will bring the total open space within the project’s site up to 9344 sqm.
The open space area in and around Mercury House, Mercury Tower, the Hotel and the Mercury Suites connects Triq San Gorg and Triq Sant Andrija, whilst shielding this space from vehicular traffic. The piazza, with the main access from Triq San Gorg, includes a split level, which provides different viewpoints for the interface between the tower and Mercury House, as well as the new residential and tower blocks. The open space is characterised with both soft and hard landscaping and water features.
Mercury Contracting Projects Ltd’s architect Annamaria Attard Montalto said that Mercury House itself will be restored along with the use of the underground vaults as a historical attraction.
Council concerned about congestion, traffic
St Julian’s local council mayor Albert Buttigieg raised various objections on behalf of his constituents.
“The PA has repeatedly chosen to judge massive developments in a piecemeal fashion. The lack of a master plan for the locality and the lack of consideration for the negative social impact assessment (SIA) report show that this process is flawed,” Buttigieg argued.
The mayor went on to outline problems related to the locality becoming too congested, especially due to such projects.
“The glossy marketing exercise we were given today is meaningless as this will cause problems with traffic, noise and vibrations from constantly ongoing construction works.
"The local council believes that there will be a negative impact on the aesthetics of the area as well a massive loss of open, public spaces,” Buttigieg added.
Project architect Attard Montalto argued that the project will provide “high quality, decent and enjoyable” public spaces within the site’s footprint, about 4313sqm in total.
The board members all voted in favour of the project with the exception of Alison Bonello and St Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg, with a total of nine in favour and two against.
The board members imposed a number of minor conditions such as adapting the surrounding roads to ensure smooth traffic flow.
Board member Gilmour Camilleri also noted that the roads will require additional investment after observing that the traffic impact assessment predicts congestion issues by 2028.
Board member Martin Saliba pointed out that the reports had been reviewed by experts in their field and that the 19-storey hotel serves as an ideal continuation of the aesthetics of Mercury tower itself.