Developer Carlo Stivala is eyeing a 15-storey hotel at the Sliema Ferries that will dwarf the row of three-storey houses on the street it corners.
The application, PA/02965/23, seeks to turn the three-storey building on the Sliema seafront, which currently houses a Labour Party club, into a three-star hotel.
According to the application, much of the demolition is set to be internal, with the existing facades being retained. The proposal includes a restaurant at ground level, meeting and conference rooms at levels one to four, hotel rooms at levels five to 14 and a bar, pool and deck area on the receded floor level.
The proposed building would lie on a corner with Triq San Vincenz and the Sliema seafront on three plots with a total floor area of 395 square metres.
With most of the buildings on the Ferries side of the building reaching a height of nine floors, which would still see the proposed hotel rise a further six storeys above them, the row of houses in Triq San Vincenz is still well preserved and is a uniform height of three storeys.
While architecture firm Falzon and Cutajar are listed as the project’s architects on the planning application, the drawings submitted in the application appear to have been designed by Robert Musumeci.
Drawings of the site as it is presently as well as the adjacent building
Drawings of the proposed 15-storey hotel compared to the adjacent building
Residents who have filed objections to the application have already highlighted how the proposed hotel would negatively impact the residents of Triq San Vincenz.
“The three-storey houses which conform to the style typical of the Sliema urban core will be completely overshadowed by the 15-storey hotel,” one objector wrote.
“Malta’s sanitary law has always sought to limit the height of buildings in narrow streets in order to ensure minimum standards of light and air to surrounding homes. Tall buildings in narrow streets also trap toxic emissions which contribute to the fact that 14% of Malta’s health problems are due to environmental factors.”
Questions about the pressure on the drainage system as well as exacerbating the narrow street’s traffic problems with hotel activity were also raised.
Another objector said that the proposed hotel would block out fresh air and sunshine for residents of the street as well as compound traffic troubles.
“How will the hotel be serviced by all the trucks and delivery vans? Has a study about this been done?” another objector said.
“The road is too narrow to cater for a hotel and all its respective services. As for the meeting rooms - where are these attendees going to park? Sliema already has a massive parking problem and a 14-storey hotel will also need parking for its staff and tourists - where will these cars park?”
The plans publicly available for the project from the Planning Authority’s portal presently do not show the applicant has included plans for underground parking or any other parking provision.
In 2015, a previous application by Adrian Deguara had proposed demolishing the third floor of the building and constructing five additional new ones as well as a penthouse, which had also garnered objections, primarily to how the then nine-storey building would impact Triq San Vincenz.
Despite a case officer recommending the project for refusals, the project was approved by the Planning Commission and a subsequent appeal was shot down.
Stivala and Musumeci were most recently also behind plans to demolish the modernist St Julian’s villa Palazzina Vincenti and turn it into a 136-room hotel. Last month the villa was listed as a Grade 2 scheduled building, effectively saving it from demolition and meaning radically altered plans would have to be presented to develop the site.
Last year, Stivala’s project at the site of the former Barracuda and Piccolo Padre restaurants saw the forfeiture of a €2,300 bank guarantee after the Planning Commission concluded that works had been carried out illegally on the Grade 2 scheduled building.