Manoel Island: MIDI plans 323 apartments

The Tigné Point and Manoel Island developers MIDI presented final plans for 323 apartments on Manoel Island, which will be mainly located in two clusters in the vicnity of the bridge and another further inland.

A four-storey housing unit will have 227 apartments off the bridge entry point, while another five-storey housing of 83 units will be located further inland.

The full planning application largely conforms to an already approved masterplan, with some variations which according to the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage “will improve the context of the architectural assets” that will be preserved in the area. As approved in 2021, the masterplan foresaw the erection of 300 apartments.

The application also foresees the rehabilitation of the remnant of the original Old Plague Hospital next to the 83-apartment complex as a food and drinks establishment, and the restoration of the Manoel Destroyer Depot with the adjacent D.S.E.A. building, to form another four residential units.

The Manoel Hospital Building, which also served as a Customs House, will be restored and transformed into a restaurant.

And an existing building adjacent to St George’s Chapel will be restored and converted into a Lapidarium for the storage and display of architectural remains recovered during the archaeological evaluation of the site. The plans for this museum have been welcomed by the SCH.

Archaeological investigations by the Superintendence had confirmed the presence of extensive historical cemeteries, as well as of archaeologically significant rock-cut pits in the seabed near the Manoel Island bridge.

Another commercial area will include a multilevel car-park facility and overlying clubhouse hosting a gymnasium, swimming pool, padel courts, and a restaurant. Public open spaces of 10,000 square metres will include an indigenous garden and the recreation of the historic Bovine Street, the dedicated walled route that originally connected the cattle shed to the waterfront quay and docks, which allowed livestock to be safely transported for quarantine.