Fino high-rise offices for 8,000 workers to create new housing demand

The Fino furniture company’s showroom and factory will rise to 19 storeys in the Mriehel industrial area, in new plans for a six-block project.

The company is prospecting two towers of 19- and 18-storeys, an 11- and nine-storey block, and two three-storey buildings towering above Mdina Road which will dwarf the neighbouring Farsons brewery.

Rising above the major thoroughfare, the towers will face the Birkirkara residential area behind the historical aqueduct.

The higher towers will be set on a platform on Triq San Gwakkin, therefore rising to 20 and 21 storeys, in an architectural design that will set them in the form of an upright boomerang. Both will be built on two podium floors which are set to include retail areas visible from the back road. From this angle the buildings will be rising to the maximum height of 86metres.

The whole office complex will have a total floor area of 79,000sq.m, excluding two commercial floors and an underlying car park. The

largest tower will include a floor space of 35,000sq.m.

A project development statement from by the developers in March estimated that the number of office workers required for the project to be in the region of 8,000.

But the PDS also warned that “the substantial number of expatriate employees” which should be expected to be working in the offices and commercial facilities is bound “to contribute to an increase in pressure for both new development and the re-development of existing properties in the Birkirkara, and possibly Balzan residential areas.”

The Environmental and Resources Authority has concluded that a full environment impact assessment is required for the project.