Smart City drops major residential project

Dubai investors who sought to turn part of the original IT city public concession into a residential villa development have withdrawn their planning application.

Following the Planning Authority’s refusal of the application just a few days before the June MEP elections, the project architects, AP Valletta, gave notice to the Authority that the application had been withdrawn.

It is unclear whether the Dubai investors, who have completely abandoned their promises to develop the public land into a state-of-the-art IT city, will present fresh plans or abandon their planned speculative investment.

The Shift is informed that Smart City has not yet decided on a path forward but is still examining ways to maximise the profit from the land it acquired from the government under a PN administration.

The project never really took off, with the Dubai investors completely mismanaging their ambitious project.

In their latest proposal, Smart City wanted to build 69 villas next to the historic Fort St Rocco. This would have enabled them to add some 4,000 square metres of their concession to residential development, which the original agreement with the government did not allow.

Describing Smart City’s latest attempt as “putting the cart before the horse,” PA Chairman Manuel Camilleri said that before any other Smart City application was to be considered, a final decision has to be made on whether to allow a change in the master plan..

The Shift is informed that the application to change the master plan, filed by the same architects in 2021, has not progressed yet. Currently, this application is suspended.

According to the 2007 deal, signed by a PN administration, most of the development at Smart City had to be office space intended to host cutting-edge IT companies. For this reason, the 99-year concession was based on a nominal value of €0.50c per square metre.

Yet the promised Dubai investment has yet to arrive. The only office block built was occupied by government entities, including the Malta Tourism Authority and the Malta Gaming Authority when Labour was elected to power in 2013.

Soon after disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s right-hand man, Keith Schembri, was appointed as the government’s representative on Smart City’s board, he engineered a new multi-million-euro ITS campus to be built at Smart City – not allowed in the original concession.

The Shoreline, a shopping mall and residential apartments, was also recently built, again departing from the original scope of the project and financed by a South African businessman with DF advocates partners Kevin Deguara and Jean Farrugia as his associates. The pair are facing criminal court charges over the scandalous hospital concession.