'Resort' for elderly planned in Naxxar

A Naxxar industrial zone may soon be converted into a 175-apartment resort for the elderly if the planning authority gives the project the green light.

Simblia Gardens, as the resort will be called, could be completed by September 2011 if the go-ahead was granted, developer Anglu Xuereb said as he unveiled the €25 million project.

The "unique" project was not an old people's home but a "resort" for elderly people who wished to be independent and live in a community with people their age.

"Rather than being picked up from a home and taken to relatives' houses, this resort will be a place where elderly people's relatives can go and visit them," he said.

According to the catalogue, the resort will be perched on high grounds in Naxxar and set on a plot of about 16,000 square metres, now an industrial area neighbouring the Malta College for Arts Science and Technology.

The 175 apartments would make up 40 per cent of the resort and the remaining 60 per cent would be dedicated to landscaped gardens.

All areas would be accessible by wheelchair and the resort would include facilities such as a newsagent, a spa, a chapel, a laundry, a convenience store, a coffee shop and restaurant and a children's area. There would also be a nursing home area and a doctor on call.

The project is expected to employ 100 people.

Residents would be able to rent an apartment for about €35 a day or enter into a long-term lease agreement by depositing a sum of money into a bank trust.

The project proposal was first presented to Mepa in 1993 and, after being refused, an outline development permit was granted in 2000 on appeal. The full development permit is still pending.