Updated 10.30 am
The Planning Authority has approved an application for a three-storey office block that will replace an open space currently being used as a car park at the Valletta Waterfront.
The project, which is being referred to as the Wedge Building, will be built on a 507-square-metre plot between Pinto Wharf and Triq il-Vittmi Furjanizi tal-Gwerra in Floriana, just outside the Valletta Waterfront's existing office space.
The application was filed by the Valletta Cruise Port and designed by architecture firm AP Valletta.
The building was recommended for approval after it downsized from previous plans to construct a higher building, which were later withdrawn. The approved plans will not see the proposed building rise higher than the existing ones already constructed on the waterfront.
Photo via Planning AuthorityIn a brief statement on social media, the PA said that the board had approved the building that is intended to serve as part of the Valletta Waterfront project, assuring that the building will be identical in height to the passenger terminal and will not be visible from the Grand Harbour.
"The design of the building takes into careful consideration its contextual environment while producing an architectural language that speaks of its time," the PA said.
Earlier applications dating back to 1999 and the early 2000s envisioned the site as being included in plans for the passenger terminal, however, despite these approved plans, it remained in use as street parking for many years.
But in 2017 and again in 2019, two applications were filed seeking to build a four-storey Class 4A office building on the site. They were both later withdrawn, before the submission of this application in 2021.
In a statement, Floriana deputy mayor James Aaron Ellul said that the Floriana council had objected to the project.
Ellul said that he believes that the locality should strive to create more open spaces and not take them away for development, particularly in Floriana which is already quite dense with office buildings.