A 4,000 square metre Mellieħa green lung at the heart of a tug-of-war between the government and residents is being earmarked for a towering apartment complex.
A planning application (PA/00371/24) filed by T&S Property Holdings last November shows how the stretch of land in an area known as Tal-Qortin could be developed into a large residential complex.
The development, made up of three separate blocks, will contain 23 residential units on each of its ground, first, second and third floors, for a total of 92 apartments, together with 17 penthouses and 171 basement garages.
The application is still at the vetting stage, but it has received the green light from the Environment and Resources Authority.
One of the blocks that is set to be built. Image: Planning Authority€380,000 yearly for a 50-year lease
The land, which belonged to the government, had been transferred by tender to T&S Property Holdings on a 50-year perpetual revisable emphyteusis in 2023, against an annual payment of €380,000.
The deal stipulated that the winning bidder could redeem the emphyteusis within the first 15 years after a revision according to the rate of inflation
The land is believed to have a market value of over €12m.
Although T&S Property Holdings were outbid in the tender process, the company are believed to have had a right of first refusal because they already owned an adjacent piece of land on the same plot, allowing them to match the highest bid received and take over the entire plot.
T&S Property Holdings are familiar faces in Malta’s construction sector, with its two directors, Paul Attard and Paul Vella, also being directors of GAP Property and Ballut Blocks respectively.
Protests from residents, councillor
The land transfer had raised the ire of several residents when it was first proposed.
In February 2023, at the beginning of the tender process, a group of residents filed a parliamentary petition, calling on the Lands Authority to stop the land transfer and maintain the land as a much-needed open space.
The calls had been backed by PN MPs Ivan Castillo and Robert Cutajar, as well as then-PL MEP Cyrus Engerer.
Later in the year, Mellieħa local councillor Gabriel Micallef, who would become the town’s mayor a few months later, called on the ombudsman to investigate the land transfer, arguing that the circumstances around the deal “raise serious questions about the transparency and fairness of the transaction”.