Manoel Island pivot: How public pressure rewrote Malta’s development playbook

From a 1990s bipartisan concession to sustained and victorious civic activism, Manoel Island’s story traces Malta’s shifting public sphere.

It tells the story of how citizen priorities on public open space and urban liveability reshaped political decisions. And finally, government responded by pressuring developers into an agreement, which seals the future of Manoel Island as a national park.

MaltaToday looks back at the Manoel Island saga to discover how an impossible dream became a reality.

1990s–2000: Original concession and political consensus

In the 1990s, PN-led governments prioritised growth by transferring public land to private developers, producing mega projects like Portomaso and Chambray in Gozo.

In 1992, the Maltese government issued a development brief for Manoel Island and Tigné Point, won by the MIDI consortium, led by entrepreneur Albert Mizzi, a former Dom Mintoff confidante and respected across the political spectrum. Discussions continued through the Labour interlude between 1996 and 1998, with the outline permit approved under a re-elected PN administration. This permit foresaw 499 villas and apartments and 95,000sq.m of new buildings on Manoel Island, followed by a 99-year concession to MIDI issued in 2000.

MIDI was tasked with mixed-use development, restoring Fort Manoel and the Lazzaretto, ensuring public shoreline access, and achieving “substantial completion” by March 2023, with allowances for regulatory delays. At the time, public opinion largely accepted private-led regeneration, pitched as reviving a derelict, crime-ridden space.

In 2025, former Prime Minister Alfred Sant reflected that the era’s “consensus” on large concessions had ignored future demands for open space and environmental protection.

2000–2013: As Tigné takes off, doubts on Manoel Island are sown

Tigné Point was largely developed as planned, establishing the commercially profitable portion, while Manoel Island remained mostly undeveloped aside from heritage works.

As the Tigné skyline evolved, along with Qui-Si-Sana and Sliema, public optimism began to wane.

Despite early discontent, the North Harbour Local Plan incorporated the outline development permit for Manoel Island and Tigné, embedding it into the planning framework guiding future applications.

Delays on Tigné due to the rediscovery of the Garden Battery and Tigné tunnel works also slowed Manoel Island’s development. These delays coincided with a shift in public mood after the 2006 local plan approvals, which sparked the first large-scale environmental protests led by Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar. On the political front, the Nationalist Party faced greater competition from Alternattiva Demokratika and only managed to win the 2008 general election by a mere 1,600 votes. In 2010, an Office of the Prime Minister spokesperson confirmed that during a meeting with MIDI, the idea of a less intense Manoel Island development was raised.

In 2012, Albert Mizzi suggested that leaving Manoel Island undeveloped would require compensating MIDI. MIDI later denied discussing divesting the project, affirming it remained on course. Subsequently, a permit was issued for 54 apartments, 6,320sq.m of retail space, a casino, and a hostel on the Lazzaretto site.

2013–2017: Building boom, shifting policies and rising public concern

After the election of a Labour government in 2013, Malta experienced a construction boom triggered by policy changes and economic recovery from the post-2009 crunch. Planning policies were repeatedly adjusted or “moved the goalposts” to encourage development, which became particularly intense along the Gżira front. To this day Gżira remains a permanent construction zone, with high-rise blocks, luxury apartments, and commercial projects choking the area. In this context, Manoel Island began to emerge as a symbolic ‘central park’ for Malta—a rare waterfront open space in the heart of highly urbanised districts. This fuelled the public desire for permanent green space in densely built districts. Citizens began to view open space not as a luxury but as essential to quality of life, turning Manoel Island into a symbol in the struggle for open spaces.

2016: Direct action to secure the coastline

In September 2016, Moviment Graffitti and then Gżira Mayor Conrad Borg Manché carried out a non-violent direct action to reopen fences blocking coastal access to the Manoel Island shoreline.

The action saw police attempting to take action against protestors but were persuaded not to by the mayor after he forcefully argued that it was the developers, who were in breach of contractual obligations. The direct action forced negotiations with MIDI and secured public access to Manoel Island’s foreshore. Gżira residents were able to enjoy swimming and walking around the island once again. But while activists had little hope of stopping the development enshrined in legally binding contracts, this was a critical moment for civic agency, demonstrating that organised activism can achieve tangible outcomes.

Subsequently, the Manoel Island Foundation was set up on the initiative of the Gżira local council, together with MIDI plc, to oversee the developer’s obligations, safeguarding public access, heritage, and open spaces on Manoel Island. The former mayor voted in favour of the new masterplan approved in 2019. But groups like Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar and the newly set-up Inħobbu l-Gżira persisted in opposing the project, and a 6,000-strong petition was presented to parliament but was never discussed.

2017-2019: First reduction in floorspace, increase in apartments

In 2017, MIDI presented a revised masterplan for Manoel Island, amending the 1999 outline permit, which was approved in 2019. The new permit reduced the developable floor space on Manoel Island by 8,000sq.m, but despite this reduction, the number of proposed units was increased to 610 apartments. This increase was achieved by converting what was originally intended as commercial or office space in the 1999 plan into residential units. The permit also envisaged land reclamation. The reduction was achieved by transferring the same amount of land area from the building footprint on Manoel Island to the Tigné peninsula, thus enabling the approval of a new high-rise tower near the restored Garden Battery.

2020–2023: Permit revocation, archaeological finds, and further reductions

In a major setback for MIDI, the masterplan approved in 2019 was revoked a year later by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal due to the conflict of interest of architect Edward Said, who conducted the EIA’s heritage study and is also the son of a MIDI director. A new masterplan further downscaling the floor space of new buildings to 55,000sq.m from the 87,000sq.m in the revoked permit was approved in 2021, with the number of apartments now set at 300. The reduction was triggered by extensive archaeological discoveries consisting of cemeteries. The masterplan was followed by a full development application which envisaged 323 apartments with new buildings over a floorspace of 65,000sq.m and a footprint of 29,500sq.m, or 10% of the island’s total land area. MIDI justified the increase in residential floor space by saying that this was offset by a reduction in commercial and office space and was the result of a better layout. Building heights remained capped at four to five floors. The permit was recommended for approval by the case officer, but a final decision was never taken pending a heritage impact assessment by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.

2025: 29,000-strong petition leads to government change of heart

This year marked the tipping point for Manoel Island as activists pushed a 29,041-strong petition—around 5% of Malta’s population—calling for a national park. The Manoel Island: Post Għalina campaign proposed a compromise: Public access to a park without penalising the developer. Initially met with scepticism, the petition nonetheless triggered a political shift.

Activists leveraged the contractual deadline for “substantial completion” by March 2026. On 11 May, Prime Minister Robert Abela expressed caution, noting that reclaiming the island would cost the state “hundreds of millions” and questioned whether it would be responsible spending. On 1 June, he described withdrawing the agreement as a “momentary populist act” while emphasising that 60% of the project already involved public green space and 20% heritage restoration costing €150 million.

Facing internal party pressure, including from PL President Alex Sciberras and backbench MP Edward Zammit Lewis, Abela requested a legal review on 3 June. He hinted at possible action against MIDI, while ruling out excessive compensation. He pledged to “meet and listen to everyone,” framing the petitioners’ fight as his own.

The Opposition, led by Bernard Grech, was more cautious, calling a national park a “beautiful dream” but insisting obligations be respected and ascertained. It was a view echoed by Alex Borg before becoming PN leader, who when doorstepped in front of parliament stressed balancing residents’ concerns with contractual duties. After Abela signalled intent to challenge the original deed, Grech shifted to a more forceful tone, calling on the government to try and secure a park while ensuring contract terms were upheld. By September, Abela formally committed to establishing a national park.

In this case Abela’s handling was initially hesitant and overtly legalistic, but he ultimately demonstrated a willingness to listen and engage with activists, responding to public concerns on environmental issues. Politically it helped him offset criticism over the proposed planning bills, which for now have been put on the backburner, and allowed him to gain political mileage from public consultation on the park ahead of elections.

March 2026: The final deal

In March 2026, the government and MIDI plc reached a landmark settlement to end the 99-year concession over Manoel Island and Fort Tigné. Under the agreement, MIDI will return Manoel Island and Fort Tigné to public ownership. The government will pay a hefty cash payment of €43 million in compensation, covering verified restoration and infrastructural costs, which is significantly lower than the €78 million requested by MIDI.

The deal comes on the eve of a crucial deadline for MIDI, which faces a €50 million bond repayment in July 2026.

The activists themselves welcomed the agreement, describing it as a “swift and diplomatic settlement, which avoids unnecessary delays.”

In this way the government avoided the prospect of protracted legal litigation, possibly dragging on for several years and having an uncertain outcome.

But the deal still awaits parliamentary approval and the Opposition is pushing for the auditor general to provide an independent valuation to verify the amounts due while supporting “the principle of returning the sites to public use”.

Still, at the end of the day, what started as a “beautiful dream” constrained by legal obligations, as described by Bernard Grech, which could have come at a cost of “hundreds of millions”, as Robert Abela initially warned, has resulted in a settlement that seems acceptable to all parties involved.

Manoel Island now exemplifies how sustained civic pressure, political responsiveness, and adaptive governance can resolve complex urban conflicts, even when large-scale development agreements initially favoured private profit over public good.

Clarification: A previous version of this report suggested that MIDI had reached out to critics in 2016 to set up a foundation involving stakeholders, when in fact the initiative was the Gżira local council's.