Changes to City Centre project not ‘minimal’, db Group CEO says

The changes to the controversial City Centre project are not at all “minimal”, db Group CEO Arthur Gauci said when detailing the revamped plans for the Pembroke development.

The City Centre project, for which plans have been re-submitted after a court revoked the initially approved permit, has been one of the most controversial in recent times.

Then made up of a 38-storey residential tower and a 17-storey hotel block, the project had attracted thousands of objections when it first came before the Planning Authority in 2018. It was approved by the Planning Board, but was eventually revoked by a court in June 2019 which found that one of the Board members had a conflict of interest.

New, amended plans for the project have now been submitted to the Planning Authority, but objectors – NGOs and local councils – have derided them as providing little to no change to what had been initially proposed.

Gauci stressed however that, contrary to this, the changes to the project are not minimal. One of the most noteworthy changes, project architect Darren Sciberras said, is in height: the tower’s height has been reduced by 31 metres – an equivalent of seven floors – while the hotel has also had 8 metres – equivalent to two floors – chopped off.

It means, Gauci said, that the height of the project is comparable with, and in some places less than, that of other major projects across the island.

Sciberras also pointed out that the gap between the hotel and the tower has also been increased by 11 metres, meaning that this is a gap of 40 metres between the two buildings.

The entire development is now 19,000 square metres less than the permissible total development allowed by the local plan of the area.

The excavation volume for the project will be reduced by 58,000 cubic metres, while public open space will increase by 40% to 7,000 square metres.

In terms of historical buildings on site, the ITS buildings, previously British barracks, will be retained and restored on site and incorporated into the design, as will the existing Cold War era substation.

This is in spite of the fact, Sciberras said, that similar buildings, which had once been in the area, were demolished and that the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage had not objected to the previous plans to maintain only the façade. He said that the buildings will be restored in place, rather than taken apart and rebuilt as has happened in other developments.

There are also revisions to the plans above Ghar Harq Hamiem – a unique cave situated underneath the project and which environmentalists had expressed significant concern over. The load over the cave has been reduced by 43%, while there will be no change to the excavation depths over the cave.

This means that there is a 24 metre buffer of rock between the cave and the project above it. For comparison, Gauci pointed out that the rock buffer between the St Julian’s’ tunnels and the developments above is of 9 metres, adding that the cave will be completely safe.

There will also be reduced shading as a result of the downscaled project: Gauci noted that the most shading that the project will cast is in December, when the shading on the residences below will be of no more than 90 minutes – that is, if it’s a sunny day to begin with. He also pointed out that only 3% of Pembroke’s residents will be affected by the shadows cast by the project.

Gauci said that they had tried to engage with residents in the area to see what they wanted as much as possible, to the point that he was going from door to door to talk to people himself. “Not many developers do that,” he pointed out.

He added that he had “lost count” of how many times they had met with the Pembroke local council that had been one of the opponents to the project along with two other councils and several NGOs.

Indeed, Gauci said that they had already paid the €1.5m planning gain to the council and that from their consultation with residents they had proposed several ideas as to how the council can use that money.

One such proposal is the transformation of a dilapidated area within the Pembroke housing estate to a 99-car parking area which can be designated for residents only. Another is for the building of a family recreation space, while another is the purchase of temporary decking to make a popular rocky beach beyond the Pembroke Athleta football pitch more accessible.

Investment in community CCTV cameras and the embellishment of over 12,000 square metres of land and green open spaces for use for the public were also suggested.

Gauci stressed that while these projects could be funded through the planning gain that db Group has already paid, the land will remain in the hands of the council and, by extension, the public.

Controversy had erupted over the amount the Group will be paying for the land, with opponents to the project contending that the price for the land was too low.

Asked about this, Gauci said that their initial bid of €17m for the land was based on the price at which the adjacent Villa Rosa site – which is of a similar size – had been purchased at four years prior.

He noted that the Villa Rosa land had been bought for €15m on a freehold basis, meaning that the site owner can do whatever he wants as long as it is within the parameters of the local plan. However, the City Centre site was purchased on a temporary emphyteusis with several conditions and without the possibility of the land-owner being able to convert it to freehold.

He said that only the real estate component of the project can be turned into freehold, but that can only be done by the people who buy the real estate units, and not by db Group.

In the end, db Group settled on paying the €60m figure after gauging what the market would be willing to pay when the project is built, Gauci said. He added that they had used the same model of contract as had been used between government and Midi, but noted that unlike in Midi’s case, where payment was spread across 23 years, their payments were spread across seven years.

He said that they had not missed a single payment.

He noted that both the National Audit Office and even the European Commissioner responsible for fair competition Margrethe Vestager had found that the transfer of land and the price at which it was transferred for were correct. Looking at the situation today in a post-COVID 19 scenario, Gauci says that the €60m figure is expensive and casts doubt as to whether he would have even accepted the land at such a figure.

He said that because of the pandemic, they had lost €120m in sales which had been made and signed before COVID-19 hit.

Gauci said that the project would provide €490m in revenue to the government and would employ up to 1,544 full-time workers in the construction and just over 1,200 full-time workers between the City Centre itself and the shopping mall retailers once its doors open.

These figures, he said, may not have seemed notable when the project was first mooted, but in a post-COVID scenario they are of renewed significance, as the country starts to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic.

When asked what the timeframes for the project are if approved, Sciberras said that the initial plan had been to complete the project in 18 months, but that may increase to between two to two-and-a-half years.

The project is currently at the representation phase, which means that members of the public or other entities such as NGOs can submit their views on the project. This will run until 26 June, with a Planning Authority hearing then expected for some time in July.