The long-idle Excelsior Hotel, the doors of which have failed to open for business since the early 1990s, is finally about to see the light of day under new ownership, The Malta Independent on Sunday can report.
Speaking to this newspaper, the hotel’s current owner – Hong Kong-based Stewart Elliott – said that work is moving apace and the hotel could open its doors as early as next year.
With the hotel’s interiors having been redesigned and modernised, work is now expected to turn to more concrete matters and, Mr Elliot explains, materials for the completion of the project are being shipped in from the four corners of the world. A team to oversee the development is also present on site.
Mr Stewart, who has other business interests and relations with Malta including a stake in VISET, the consortium tasked with the development of Valletta’s sea passenger terminal, sees great potential in Malta.
“I have been very impressed with Malta during my visits to the country and have noted many similarities between Malta and Hong Kong,” he commented when contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday.
“This is particularly relevant in view of Malta serving as a bridge between North Africa and Europe, now that Malta has now become a European Union member State.”
The hotel passed into Mr Elliott’s hands in October 2003 when he purchased the property from the former 100 per cent stakeholders, Hong Kong’s Hopewell Holdings run by renowned entrepreneur Gordon Wu. The deal came as part of the company’s settlement with Mr Elliott, a former Hopewell executive director, on his retirement from the company in 1998. The sale formed part of a settlement of four lawsuits between the two parties.
The hotel, first constructed in the 1960s, has had something of a chequered history. Once one of Malta’s leading hotels in what is widely considered to be one of Malta’s most picturesque locations, the site was seen to have degenerated into a state of general dilapidation with work on the new hotel being intermittently stalled.
The hotel closed its doors in March 1990 after dismissing its 145 employees, and in October of the same year it was sold to Hopewell Holdings Ltd, which planned to demolish the hotel and erect another in its stead.
The original Excelsior was demolished in 1992 and initial work began to develop a 420-room hotel and a marina with berths for 20 yachts. Contractor Angelo Xuereb had undertaken works in the redevelopment’s initial stages.
In May 1995 it was announced that work was half completed and in 1996 a further announcement was made that the hotel would be welcoming its first tourists in 1997. By 1999, however, work on the site was seen to have slowed dramatically and had practically come to a halt.
Speaking in an interview in 2000, Mr Xuereb had commented, “I am only the contractor for this particular project. God forbid I was the owner. I had brought the present owners (Hopewell) over to Malta and convinced them to invest here. Unfortunately, they are 10,000 miles away and the momentum of this project has been hindered by this distance.”