Sacred Heart hotel set for refusal

An eight-storey hotel proposed over an existing townhouse on Sacred Heart Avenue, St Julian’s, is being recommended for refusal by the Planning Authority’s directorate. A final decision will taken on 17 March.

The development, which would be visible from the grounds of the Zammit Clapp hospital, was deemed ‘excessive’ by the PA case officer even if its height conforms to a controversial policy that allows two storeys over local plan height limits for hotels.

But these same rules demand that developments be kept “within the urban context”, a clause that led the case officer to recommend refusal for the modern design of the hotel. “In terms of height, scale and volume, the proposal appears to be massive given its site location is a detached block within such narrow streets”.

The hotel is a Core Properties development, proposed along Triq is-Sorijiet and Triq il-Kunvent tas-Sorijiet, in the vicinity of the back garden of The Cloisters, the stately home now being excavated for a seven-storey apartment block and boutique hotel.

Plans envisage the partial restoration of the existing ‘Sayonara’ townhouse, its façade, the demolition of parts of the building, and the construction of five full floors and recessed top floor. Being situated on a hill, the hotel includes four basement levels for services, a spa and breakfast area.

Developers had strategically applied first for a residential development, then re-applied for an increase in the number of storeys by proposing a hotel. Indeed, the PA issued a permit to Core Properties to partly demolish the two-storey dwelling and replace it with a six-floor apartment block. The latest application effectively adds two more storeys on what was approved in 2017, for the hotel.

Local plans for the area limits heights to four floors or 20.8m, which effectively can be turned into five storeys with a penthouse. Hotels can get an extra two storeys.

The neighbourhood consists of various dwellings constructed in different periods, with the earliest one being a townhouse facing Sacred Heart Avenue, dating to the 19th century.