The Gutenberg print press which borders between Hal-Ghaxaq and Santa Lucija may be demolished and turned into a large shopping complex, as the company which runs the printing press has filed a planning application to this end.

Situated on Triq Hal Tarxien, Ghaxaq and Triq il-Qoton, Santa Lucija, the printing press was built in 1996 as the purpose-built factory for the expanding Gutenberg Press Ltd, which itself was founded in 1982 and is today Malta's foremost printing company.

It is the company itself which has applied to demolish the existing printing press and to replace it with a shopping complex spread across three floors above street level and four floors below up to a maximum height of 9.5m above street level.

The proposal includes 290 parking spaces, a level of commercial storage, a supermarket, and several retail and catering outlets which would make up a shopping mall on the above-ground levels.

The site measures a total of 5,816 square metres according to plans submitted by the project's architect Joe Cassar to the Planning Authority, with 5,342 square metres of that being its built footprint.

The project will hold two levels of underground parking - situated on level -3 and level -4 - with 145 parking spaces on each floor, some which would be earmarked for those with disability badges.

Level -2 of the project is dedicated to commercial storage, with 4,200 square metres of the floor space on this level being earmarked to this end.  Level -1 is then dedicated to a supermarket, which will take up 2,826 square metres of the floor.

Between the ground floor and first floor, the plans outline 11 separate spaces for retail outlets, which total 5,430 square metres, while the ground floor also includes a food outlet and a raised area of unspecified use.

The second floor earmarks 1,250 square metres for a catering and entertainment area, and another 926 square metres for light industrial use.  Light industrial use can, by definition, be anything from artisan craft businesses to spaces from research and development of products. This floor would also include the complex's management offices.

The application filed is for an Outline Development Application.

An Outline Development Permission, if granted, is an approval in principle of the full development subject to a number of reserved matters which would need to be included in a full development permit application, which would have to be filed by the applicant anyway. An outline development permit would override any future policy which might conflict with the project.

The site in question is in an Outside Development Zone, but the land it is on - and the land around it - is already committed with development, with a number of industrial buildings, a supermarket, and the River of Love headquarters all built in the same area.