New car park for 481 cars proposed at Smart City

Infrastructure Malta has presented an application for the development of four underground parking levels providing 481 spaces on a 4,000sq.m plot of barren land at Smart City.

A landscaped area with 33 olive trees is being proposed at street level.

The area, identified as Plot M1, is earmarked as a public open space in a revised masterplan still under the consideration of the Planning Authority. Most of the area was already designated for infrastructural works in the original masterplan.

The Planning Authority is still in the process of approving a new masterplan for a project originally approved as an ICT city. What was originally conceived as a Dubai-style plug-and-play internet city is now set to house 1,000 residential units, a hospital, the relocated ITS campus, the American University of Malta, and a new private school.

The Planning Authority is also in the process of approving a new road link passing along the fortifications and 5,600sq.m of agricultural land, linking Żabbar and Smart City.

The Maltese government, which will fund the new parking, holds an 8% equity stake in Smart City Malta, which is mostly owned by the Dubai government. The government is contractually bound to develop the new road as well as to create 600 parking spaces under the agreement with Smart City signed in 2022.

The carpark will be located on a triangular plot of land next to a plot designated as an “educational campus” in the new masterplan.