Delimara hotel owner also acquired 23,000 square metres of surrounding land

The entrepreneur proposing redeveloping a derelict hotel at il-Kalanka in Delimara has also acquired 23,135 square metres of rural land in the vicinity of the proposed hotel.

The land was acquired in July 2014 by Kenneth Abela, over a year before submitting his application to rebuild the derelict hotel. He insists that his sole interest in the land is agricultural. 

Part of the land already belonged to Abela’s family since the early 1990s and was bought directly from Arken Limited, a company belonging to Kenneth Abela and his brother Aaron Abela, for €110,000. Another portion, a one-twelfth share of a larger 90,000 square metre property, was bought for €90,000 from the Moroni Testaferrata Viani estate.  

Abela signed a promise-of-sale agreement for the Delimara hotel in June 2015, before acquiring it in August.

Aims to introduce organic agriculture

A registered farmer, Abela says he wants to shift the area to organic agriculture and that the acquisition was completely unrelated to the hotel, although he does not exclude offering his fresh produce to the hotel guests.

“How can I develop it if it is outside development zones (ODZ)? My only interest is in rebuilding the derelict hotel over the same footprint and to protect the area from illegalities.”

After acquiring the land Abela immediately informed his tenants to provide evidence of their legal title to the land in question. 

He said he wants to remove illegalities on the land, blaming “squatters” on his land for trapping and hunting illegalities. Over the past year the PA has issued a number of enforcement notices against illegal structures in the area which include garages, paved terraces and artificial ponds.

Abela has also presented a planning application on a 10,500 sq.m. field (which forms part of the land he had acquired in 2014) to remove bird traps, reinstate the land for agricultural use, and convert an existing structure to an agricultural store and to pen the  Maltese black-chicken. 

Area (identified in yellow) bought by Kenneth Abela a year before presenting an application for rebuilding derelict hotel. Abela insists that he is interested only in using the land for agriculture. The hotel is circled.

Electricity to new hotel

Abela has a small room that serves as a base for an electricity pole that will serve the derelict hotel, and which has a letter box and the residential number 17 affixed to it. He said this was a “temporary supply” of electricity subject to compliance certificates from the authorities.

He has also installed a camera on the pole, which has attracted the attention of bathers frequenting the area: Abela says the camera is meant to deter his property from illegal activities like drug use or bird trapping.

He said the planting of prickly pears in the area were not meant to hinder access to the beach but enhance the environment.  

Abela also insists that a proposed tunnel linking the hotel and the reclusive beach at St Peter’s Pool is meant to increase accessibility to the beach, saying he if following recommendations from the National Council for People with Disabilities (KNPD).  

“I want Kalanka to become the first blue flag beach in the area, fully equipped with facilities like showers for the public.  The tunnel, which will allow only one person to pass from it at a time, is necessary to provide these services, apart from making the beach more accessible to everyone.”

Since the hotel is located on the soft globigerina limestone, the excavation of a tunnel to the beach raises issues of stability and changes to geomorphology, which will require further investigation. 

A screening report from the Environment Resources Authority says the built-up area will increase from 343 square metres to 561 square metres, but Abela insists his new hotel “will reduce the footprint by 100 metres”.

The ERA said the Kalanka hotel will have a significant visual impact and will change the character of the Delimara cove where it will be located “because the extent of the development will be larger than the structures already found on site in terms of height and area taken up by ancillary developments, including food and beverage and outdoor pool and decking area.”

Abela will have to prepare an environment planning statement for the proposal, which lies in a site scheduled as an Area of High Landscape Value and as an Area of Ecological Importance.

Abela wants to redevelop the former Delimara Bay Hotel into an “ecological boutique hotel” of 13 luxury suites, three ‘superior deluxe’, and one ‘presidential’ suite. It will have a a lounge, bar and restaurant, gym, spa and outdoor pool but also public beach facilities at il-Kalanka t-Tawwalija, including public toilets and showers, a first aid room, storage room and waste separation facilities. 

The hotel was built in the 1950s, but closed down in 1985, and has since been in a state of disuse and is currently in disrepair.

Kenneth Abela is the sole shareholder of Delimara Bay Hotel Ltd, as well as a director of billboard company Aiken Limited. 

Din l-Art Helwa calls for demolition of hotel

In correspondence sent to the PA Environmental NGO Din l-Art Helwa has called for the reinstatement of the area to its natural state and the demolition of the ruins of the old hotel.

In view of the ecological importance of the site Din l-Art Helwa is insisting that “there is no justification for the redevelopment of the site and the proposed development of a larger hotel and associated amenities.”