Fortina owners had acquired land for €1.4 million, 20 years ago

The Fortina hotel in Sliema was originally built on public land that was later sold to the present owners in three separate deeds concluded between 1991 and 2000, Lands Minister Ian Borg said.

Borg published the three deeds, dated 1991, 1996 and 2000, in Parliament on Monday as part of a reply to a parliamentary question filed by Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina.

The first plot of land consisting of 465sq.m was sold for €256,000 in 1991 as an extension of the Fortina Hotel complex. The second plot consisting of 2,992sq.m was sold for €250,000 in 1996 for the “exclusive use as an extension of the Fortina Hotel.”  One of the conditions specifies that any “building permit” on the site is at the discretion of the commissioner of lands.  The third plot consisting of 1,421 sqm was sold for €920,000 in 2000.

The Lands Authority had earlier confirmed that MPs will have to green-light changes to the original deed on which the new 15-storey Fortina Hotel in Sliema will be built.

The redeveloped Fortina will include a hotel as well as 109 new apartments but the Lands Authority CEO Carlo Mifsud had said the original deeds for the land on which the hotel was built had not been revised. “Any such revision, as in this case, would require a parliamentary resolution,” Mifsud told MaltaToday.

The Lands Authority had already issued its clearance to the planning application presented by the developers which was approved two weeks ago.

But Mifsud insisted that such a clearance “only implies that the applicant is being cleared to apply for a planning permit at his own risk and cost”.

In October, the Democratic Party had expressed concern that the inclusion of a residential complex within the new Fortina was a clear change of use from that stipulated in the original contract, and would “necessitate a rethink of the ground rent, which is an insignificant cost in light of the huge amount of money set to be made”.

The permit envisages the demolition of the existing four-star hotel and spa wing of the five-star resort, and the building of 109 apartments over 15 floors, as well as a ground-floor shopping mall and three levels of underground parking.

It will also add five extra floors to the existing hotel tower, and build a new 13-floor hotel block in place of the spa wing, with restaurants at the plaza level.