Leading hotel chain Marriott International has threatened SmartCity and the developers of luxury apartments with legal action over the unauthorised use of its name.
A spokesman for Marriott International told Times of Malta that the chain had no intention to open a hotel at SmartCity, as the promoters of the residential development claimed in publicity material.
In a colourful, 36-page PowerPoint presentation, the promoters of the upmarket development called The Shoreline, claim the apartments will be built adjacent to a new “Marriott Hotels and Resorts 300-bed five star hotel”.
They also said the world-re-nowned hotel chain had already “confirmed and signed long-term lease agreements” with SmartCity.
“This is a complete invention, and we cannot understand how this cropped up. To make matters worse, apart from inventing this supposed investment from our part, they have even illegally used our international logo in their publicity material to help them sell their apartments.
“This is really unprofessional,” the Marriott spokesman said.
According to Marriott, their only plan is to take over the management of the St Julian’s Le Meridien Hotel and Spa since the mother company bought the Starwood brand that owned it.
“We have never had an intention to open any hotel in SmartCity. We communicated with both SmartCity and Ricasoli Properties Ltd – the developers of the apartments – to immediately stop using our name for their publicity. We warned them they could face legal action if they persist in inventing things about us to make their project look good. We are a serious company,” said the spokesman.
The Times of Malta is informed that the owners of SmartCity, led by the Dubai-based Tecom investments, had nothing to do with the publicity and only learned about it from the media.
Sources said it was The Shoreline developers who decided to use Marriott’s name.
Despite their publicly available promotion material showing the Marriott logo, Steve Carter, Ricasoli Properties managing director, denied any issue with Marriott.
“There are definitely no issues between Marriott and Ricasoli Properties Limited,” he said.
The project to build more than 400 luxury apartments and a massive shopping mall at Smart-City hit the headlines last June when, soon after the general election, estate agents started marketing the development for purely residential purposes, though no Planning Authority permits have yet been issued.
The private developers – who purchased the land for an undisclosed sum from SmartCity’s owners – promised a high-end enclave and ‘sky villas’ with unobstructed views of the sea in what was originally destined to be a media and ICT city. The developers are known to be signing agreements with many apartment buyers.
The sources said the development was facing significant hurdles to get the planning green light for various reasons, including the height and ground area of the proposed shopping mall.
The building is projected to rise to about 11 storeys, which, the sources noted, was above the permitted height for the area.
The owners of SmartCity have now submitted plans for changes to the 2007 master plan for the area. The process, still in its initial stages, requires the PA’s green light and possibly the approval of Parliament, the sources said.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com