New 13-storey tower proposed in Mriehel

A 13-storey building is being proposed on 5,870 square metres of land in Mriehel industrial estate.

The multi-storey building is set to include three basement parking levels, retail outlets in the lower levels and overlying levels as office spaces.

The area, opposite the Mriehel industrial estate, is located between Triq l-Ghadam and Triq l-Esportaturi.

The application was presented by Albert Sant, a shareholder in Santal Properties Limited. Sant is one of the owners of the JB stores retail outlet and Tal-Lira Limited.

Although the site is within development zones and is enclosed by a wire fence, it is currently undeveloped.

In 2008, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority approved an application for the construction of workshops, stores, garages and offices on the same site over three storeys but this development was never carried out.

Mriehel was not included among the localities to be considered for high-rise buildings of over 10 storeys, when a policy regulating building heights was first issued for public consultation in November 2013.

But it was added to the list by the government before the policy was approved in June.

It was the government which recommended the addition of Mriehel as a site where buildings which are more than 10 storeys high, can be built, along with Qawra, Marsa, Tigné, Paceville and Gzira.

According to MEPA official Joe Scalpello, Mriehel was added because there was already a government strategy to improve and upgrade the area and its context.

Interviewed in The Times in June, Scalpello specified that any development in Mriehel must safeguard views of Mdina and Valletta, “as there is a sight-line between the two (historical cities), right across Mriehel.”

Planning Ombudsman David Pace had criticised the government for including Mriehel as a high-rise zone in the approved policy regulating tall buildings.

“The inclusion of Mriehel in the approved zones where the policy is applicable, should have been put to public consultation prior to the final approval by the MEPA board,” the planning ombudsman told MaltaToday in June.

Last month an application was presented by the Tumas and Gasan groups to construct four high-rise towers ranging in height between 14 and 19 storeys adjacent to the site of the present Gasan head office on the Mriehel bypass.