Works on Manoel Island could be completed by 2033, MIDI CEO Mark Portelli told Times of Malta in an exhaustive interview about the project.

The project came under renewed scrutiny following a recent planning decision to defer the award of a permit over concerns about the site falling within a proposed UNESCO buffer zone for Valletta.

Meanwhile, speculation over the project’s end date has continued to mount.

The project’s initial deadline elapsed in March 2023, more than two decades into the concession to award the land at Manoel Island and Tigné Point to MIDI, leading some to question whether the government can reclaim the land.

MIDI was set up in 1992 in response to a call to redevelop both sites and was awarded the concession in June 2000.

Speaking to Times of Malta from MIDI’s airy Manoel Island offices, Portelli says that although the project has been mired by delays over the years, most of them are the direct result of archaeological finds at both Tigné Point and Manoel Island.

The first, and possibly greatest delay, Portelli says, was “very early on, in the early 2000s”, with the discovery of the garden battery “slap bang in the middle of the Tigné development”.

Portelli says excavation works unexpectedly revealed that the garden battery was largely intact, meaning the project had to be redesigned to incorporate it into the project. This discovery alone set the project back some seven years, he argues.

“We spent from 2005 to 2012 trying to negotiate our way around the permit on how we were going to acceptably incorporate the garden battery into the development, retain it and still find the pockets where we could still undertake the developments to which we were entitled.”

Red tape certainly didn’t help matters. “The planning process was in slow motion, there was resistance to decision-making and the whole process came to a standstill. We were stuck,” Portelli says.

But surely MIDI did not need to wait a whole 17 years, until 2017, to submit its revised plans for Manoel Island?

Portelli disagrees. “It would be presumptuous to say that we could have done everything at the same time, the contract wasn’t designed that way. We were focused on getting Tigné Point over the line and once we had that, by 2015 we started working on Manoel Island.”

The works were always intended to be phased, Portelli insists, pointing to the deed’s provision allowing MIDI to freely choose which of Manoel Island or Tigné Point they wished to work on first. 

“We chose to start from Tigné Point. Simultaneously, we had an obligation to start restoration works on Fort Manoel, and we did that.” 

There were other delays along the way, not least an environmental impact assessment that was scrapped by the Environment and Planning Tribunal after it turned out that one of the consultants involved in the assessment, Edward Said, was the son of a MIDI director.

“In hindsight, we understand how authorities reached that decision (to scrap the environmental impact assessment). In fact, we didn’t even appeal it.”

Does Portelli regret engaging Said to carry out the impact assessment?

“Of course. But not because he’s the wrong person to do the job, his credentials speak for themselves, he’s beyond reproach. The irony is that his findings turned out to be correct, we had to go back to the drawing board and develop a new master plan based on his findings”.

But Portelli accepts that MIDI must shoulder the blame for some of the delay caused by the scrapped impact assessment. To complicate matters further, Portelli says, the dispute coincided with COVID-19 lockdowns.

“That appeal took 14 months to resolve. It should have taken between four and six months, but there was COVID-19. So should we be penalised for the full 14 months? No. I would concede six of those 14. Everything stopped during lockdown, EPRT stopped functioning.”

The reality is that MIDI has a title to the land and owns the land until 2099

Meanwhile, Portelli argues, archaeological digs are still under way, with heritage authorities having requested a full scan of the island.

“We started this process in June 2019 and we’ll probably finish in October 2024. That’s almost five years. Then you add what we lost on the other side and all of a sudden it’s over 10 years.”

UNESCO buffer zone

Portelli says that the latest delay – linked to Manoel Island’s position within a proposed UNESCO buffer zone – came as a surprise. 

Echoing last year’s outcry over an apartment block metres away from Ġgantija temples, objectors say that the development will negatively impact the views of Valletta.

The permit was initially recommended for approval, with the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage saying that the proposed development was in line with the requirements set out by the proposed buffer zone, only to change their mind at the 11th hour.

Although the UNESCO buffer zone isn’t yet in place, Portelli says that MIDI is working to set up a heritage impact assessment, currently identifying experts to carry out the work.

How long this will take is anybody’s guess, Portelli admits, since MIDI has never carried out a heritage impact assessment before. “But I can’t see it being more than an eight-10 week job. If we manage to engage someone by the end of April and start in May, then we should have it completed by July,” he says.

Will it be done by 2033?

So, when all is said and done, when is the project’s end date?

Portelli smiles. “The end date is March 2023 plus what we’re entitled to. So if, for argument’s sake, we lost 10 years, it becomes 2033”.

He says that MIDI is in “very advanced” discussions with authorities about what the final deadline should be, with a company announcement published as early as February 2021 cryptically saying that MIDI is “pursuing the matter with the government”.

Portelli carefully measures his words when describing the discussions. 

“There’s a whole exercise going on with the Lands Authority. But we have disclosed that we are in discussions with the authorities concerning the remedies that the company is due for the archaeological finds.”

MIDI also appears to have set its sights on 2033 as a possible finish line for the works once they get under way, if a permit is granted this year.

“Once we start the actual works we expect them to take eight years. So if we were to start works next year, it would be eight years from then, so 2033”, Portelli says. But he admits that there could be a new round of delays if the permit was to be appealed, with MIDI unwilling to start works until the appeal is decided.

I don’t believe it’s unpleasant in the context of our urban development

“Government has made it clear that they firmly believe that works should not commence while a permit is under appeal, although the law hasn’t changed yet. So it wouldn’t be in anyone’s interest to go against that direction. If there was an appeal we would have to wait it out.” 

An ‘obscene’ concession?

Prime Minister Robert Abela had harsh words for the concession, which will have more than 300 apartments across three large condominiums and two commercial spaces.

He recently describing it as “obscene”. Does Portelli agree? 

Portelli opts for a diplomatic reply.

“I’d rather not get drawn into that, he has an opinion which I respect entirely. But MIDI won a tender which was approved by parliament, as the prime minister himself said. Of course I respect his opinion and I respect the fact that he said that government is bound by it and will respect it.”

Portelli is equally measured when asked for his views on former MIDI chair Albert Mizzi’s assessment of Tigné Point (Mizzi confessed to “having second thoughts” about how the development looks from Valletta).

“I think there are people who like it and people who are not keen on it, but that can be said about anything. In the context of the urban development that has been undertaken locally, I don’t think it jars. I don’t believe it’s unpleasant in the context of our urban development. For me, it works.”

But the impact of the Manoel Island development will be “significantly less”, he is quick to add, pointing to how just over 7% of the allocated land will be built up, compared to the 62% that will be “publicly accessible open space”.

‘Detached from reality’

While Portelli is keen to dispel concerns that Manoel Island will become a gated community, he describes calls for the government to take over the land and turn it into a national park as “detached from reality”.

“The reality is that MIDI has a title to the land and owns the land until 2099. We have an obligation to develop it and undertake certain work. Is it going to be a gated community? No, of course not. It’s not all a park, but it’s public space, there’s a promenade, there’s an area around the fort that is the equivalent of a park, there’s a foreshore where you can swim. So 62% of the land is already what you want.”

 

But can Portelli blame people for having these concerns, given that MIDI effectively blocked access to Manoel Island’s foreshore for years, until activists forced their way in in 2016?  

Portelli strikes a conciliatory tone, saying he regrets how the matter was handled at the time but that things have improved since then, with the protests leading to the creation of a guardianship agreement involving the Gżira local council.

“We’re very happy with the way it was resolved. The fact that it got to that was unfortunate. But today we have a very good relationship with the community.”

Portelli says that the local council “did a good job” in ensuring that the community’s interests were respected and “holding our feet to the fire in terms of committing to a low-impact development and having a development that was accessible to the community”. 

‘Vexatious’ NGOs 

Nevertheless, he argues, the guardianship agreement has proven to be “somewhat double-edged”, with some NGOs expressing little faith in the agreement.

Portelli frequently expresses his frustration at some environmental NGOs, accusing them of trying to deliberately “torpedo” works by adopting delaying tactics and filing “vexatious” appeals. But surely they’re just exercising their legal right to appeal? 

“Do they have a right to do that? Yes. But do they have a right to frustrate our process while we sit pretty and let the clock run down? No way.”

Is he saying that this is a deliberate strategy? 

“I’m not saying that [Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar coordinator] Astrid Vella said that, she wrote it herself,” he says, pointing to a 2022 interview within which Vella said that FAA had “succeeded” in delaying the project’s approval. 

“That’s why we use words like ‘vexatious’. This is a ploy where they’re saying ‘Now government please act, we’ve done our part’,” Portelli says.