Carmelo Stivala Group, co-owned by the president of the Malta Developers Association Michael Stivala, is leading the race to take over the site of the Old Fish Market in Valletta.
The group submitted a €38,508,600 bid to rehabilitate the site - the highest bid after the government launched a call for proposals.
Bonnici Brothers Ltd also submitted three other bids - one valued at €242,435 and the other two listed for nil value.
Details of the bids were made available on the government's etenders website after submissions closed on Wednesday.
The call is for a 65-year concession agreement in return for an initial minimum investment of €18 million.
Stivala co owns the company his father founded with two of his brothers. A third, Carlo, runs his own separate construction business.
The site is made up of the Grade 1-classified building known as il-Pixkerija (fish market), the former Quarantine Hospital, also classified as Grade 1, the building housing the energy ministry, the area fronting the buildings and the seashore, and three Grade 1-classified Pinto stores.
The fish market at Grand Harbour's Barriera Wharf was rebuilt 80 years ago to make space for the Valletta ring road. In 2015, the fish market moved to Marsa for the building to be developed into a boutique hotel. But that project never came to fruition.
In total, the area on offer at Barriera Wharf covers more than 21,000 square metres.
In March, the government-owned company Malta Strategic Partnership Projects Limited, which is steering this rehabilitation project, had said it was aiming for a project that brought together different "high-level" services such as berthing facilities and tourism accommodation.
The concessionaires will pay the government amounts totalling about €615,000 per year in ground rent and concession fees.
It estimates that the project will generate about 59 jobs directly and 129 equivalent full-time jobs through the multiplier effect in the investment stage, and 137 and 320 jobs respectively during operations.
It expects the direct generation of €2.4 million in annual economic value added, rising to €5.5 million annually through multiplier effects.