Fort Cambridge high-rise heading for approval

Plans for a proposed 31-storey hotel with 375 rooms on the site of the Fort Cambridge barracks have been marked as “recommended for approval” in a clear indication that a yet-to-be published case officer’s report will be advising the PA’s planning board to approve the project.

MaltaToday is informed that it is a standard procedure for plans to be marked as “recommended for approval” when the case officer intends recommending approval but the report is still awaiting the review of an endorsing officer. It is only after this process is finalised that the case officer report is published.  This is done prior to a meeting of the planning board, which has the final say on whether a project is approved or not.

The project, as first proposed by GAP ltd in 2015, consisted of a 40-storey tower hotel on the site of the former Fort Cambridge officers’ mess in Tigné.

But in 2020 new plans were presented lowering the height of the tower to 31 floors after the removal of the hotel’s conference facilities. The haircut corresponded to a similar reduction in the height of the Townsquare Project from 38 floors to 28 floors.

The recommendation to approve the project suggests that the PA will be deciding on the project before it decides on whether to include the Fort Cambridge officer mess in its list of protected buildings.

The policy permitting high-rise hotels specifically bans such developments on scheduled historical buildings. But the PA still has to decide on a request to schedule the Fort Cambridge officer mess presented by the Sliema Local council in 2015. The building’s historical importance was recognised in studies included in the Environment Impact Assessment which recommended Grade 2 scheduling for the building, a status which normally precludes substantial changes.

In 2021 the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage expressed concern on the visual impact of the project, noting that the development will be visible above the Valletta skyline when viewed from across the Grand Harbour.

But the heritage watchdog had welcomed plans to preserve the external facades and arcades and masonry fabric of the original building. It also welcomed plans to preserve and recreate the internal courtyard.

The 2007 development brief for the land on which Fort Cambridge was leased to GAP Ltd for €54 million, had excluded development on the historical barracks limiting the development to the area where the 20-storey Fort Cambridge development now stands.

But the brief itself is not mentioned in the deed signed between the government and Gap Holdings in 2007.

Back in 2016 former parliamentary secretary for lands Deborah Schembri confirmed with MaltaToday that since the 2007 deed does not take into account the development brief, the Government Property Division “has to honour the original deed” – that would imply that no renegotiation of the lease price or any changes were being considered.