Scaled-down plans to extend the Excelsior Hotel would still impact Valletta’s skyline and harbour fortifications, considered to be of high landscape value.
The warning was sounded in a report, known as a project description statement, compiled by the developer as part of an application for a permit.
Under this proposal, hotel owner Stewart William Elliott wants to increase the hotel capacity by 99 guestrooms and refurbish the outdoor pool area.
The project also comprises a lateral extension of the main block in the form of a stepped building rising from six to eight storeys to an overall height of 25.7 metres.
If approved, the hotel’s built footprint would increase by 1,746 square metres, equivalent to a fifth of the existing built-up area.
The report noted that the current proposal has been substantially revised from an earlier application filed in 2016. This was intended to reduce the height of the new block and discard the original idea of extending the existing hotel by two storeys as well as through other development elsewhere on the site.
No development, excavation or new construction is acceptable near the Quarantine Bastion
According to the applicant, the new block will not exceed the height of the existing hotel building. It would also be lower than the Valletta ring road, Triq l-Assedju l-Kbir.
The new wing would screen only part of the road’s retaining wall and not the fortifications.
However, according to the report, the project would still have potential implications for the structural integrity of the Grade 1-scheduled Quarantine Bastion, which lies within the site’s footprint, as well as for the skyline as viewed from strategic points such as the University of Malta.
Concerns were also raised about the massing and height profile of the development.
This would affect how this part of the coastline is viewed from Sliema all the way to Pietà.
The report says this issue should be dealt with in greater detail in a visual impact assessment.
Concerns were also raised by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage.
Though it did not object to the development, at least at this stage, it warned the developer that part of the site now used for staff parking should not be developed.
This area was originally a Greek Orthodox Cemetery which was bulldozed years ago, possibly without a permit. However, in view of the existence of human burials, the only intervention that ought to take place is to restore the area to its original state as far as possible, the superintendence said.
The cultural watchdog also said that no development, excavation or new construction is acceptable near the Quarantine Bastion.
Built in the late 1960s, the hotel was mired in controversy from the very start, as part of the bastions were torn down to make way for it.
The public outrage fuelled by this project and the disdain for the country’s historical and cultural heritage served as a platform for the setting up of the NGO Din l-Art Ħelwa in 1965.
In February 1990, the hotel closed down after the Malta & Europe Hotels Group, which owned it, filed for bankruptcy. A year later it was acquired by its present owner as part of a project to demolish it and build it from scratch.
However, the project only materialised 16 years later and was inaugurated in 2007.