The Malta Union Club is expected to move to its new premises on August 26, a move its management hopes will attract more young people as members to one of Malta's oldest clubs.
"We hope that the new premises will lay to rest the saying that the Union Club is 'God's waiting room'," union club chairman Victor Cavallo said.
A reception is being held tomorrow to bid farewell to the old premises.
The new building is just a few metres down the road from the existing club. It is expected to be officially opened in October.
The Union Club is a social club. Boasting some 2,500 members, it has long been part of the Sliema social scene and is also popular among sports enthusiasts who make use of the facilities.
The future of the club hung in the balance for a number of years because the lease for the property, which belonged to the Gasan Group, expired in 2000.
After years of discussion, Gasan and the club's management committee finally signed an agreement in 1999 to lease a new building from Gasan, adjacent to the old one, at a cost of about Lm1 million.
The old building will be demolished to make way for offices, apartments and commercial space belonging to Gasan.
Mr Cavallo said that the biggest single gain from the arrangement was that the new premises was now under perpetual lease.
The footprint of the new Union Club, which will be split over three floors, is actually larger than its predecessor though it has two fewer tennis courts.
Outgoing secretary Edward Xuereb said the new club will comprise two underground car parks, two tennis courts, skittle alleys, two squash courts, a covered bocci pitch, a reception hall, three card rooms, a large bridge room, and a table-tennis room, among others.
Mr Cavallo said he hoped the new premises would entice more young people to the club - and maybe revive initiatives such as the popular Club Venticinque which ran in the sixties and seventies.
He believed the reason behind the decline in interest from the younger generation was mainly due to the huge increase in alternative forms of entertainment in recent years.
"Still, we are the only social club in Malta situated in a heavily populated region, and it can absorb several more new members," Mr Cavallo said.
Membership of the Union Club is open to everyone, and not just to the "elite", as many believed, Mr Cavallo explained.
What interested the committee was the manner in which prospective members behaved rather than their social background, he said.
However, individuals would need to be proposed and seconded before being considered for membership.
Over the years, the number of British members has dwindled, as more former members of the armed forces either passed away or left the island.
The Malta Union Club has a long history. It was founded in 1826 and used to operate from the Auberge de Provence in Valletta, before moving to Sliema in 1923.
Conditions for membership were first laid down in 1846 when it was stipulated that candidates either had to be commissioned officers of the Malta Garrison, civil servants or gentlemen residing in Malta.
King Edward VII, King George V and Lord Louis Mountbatten were among the club's honorary members.
However, over the years, the Union Club has striven to include members from all walks of life.