DB towers in pictures: From dominant to overwhelming

A new set of photomontages showing the visual impact of the proposed extension to the DB project has been presented to the Planning Authority and duly published on the authority’s public information system following a request by MaltaToday.

The DB Group is currently seeking permission to add six and seven storeys to its two residential towers, raising one tower to 23 storeys and the other to 25.

No additional height is being proposed for the approved 12-storey Hard Rock Hotel. If approved, the changes would result in 82 additional apartments over and above the 179 already permitted in a 2021 permit.

The DB Group has argued that when its 17- and 18-storey towers were approved in 2021, they did not make full use of the Gross Floor Area (GFA) allowed.

“Surplus GFA was available to the developer but never utilised,” the company said in a statement issued in June after MaltaToday reported on the new application.

But Moviment Graffitti warned that “adding more storeys to this unprecedented monstrosity” would generate even greater negative impacts in close proximity to residents and protected sites.

The latest changes requested by DB represent the second major modification in height for the development. Originally, the project was proposed as a 38-storey tower and a 17-storey hotel, but the permit for this development was later revoked by the law courts over a conflict of interest in the PA board.

In 2020, new plans were presented to accommodate two towers—one of 17 floors and another of 18 floors—apart from the hotel. At the time, the DB Group said it had “listened and acted” after public and institutional feedback, by voluntarily lowering the height and splitting the original tower into two.

Studies presented in July indicate that the towers as now proposed will cast a shadow on neighbouring residences between 7am and noon in December, and between 7am and 10am in September.