The Exchange, a new financial and business centre at the Mercury House site in St Julian’s, has just been launched by Pender Ville Ltd. The entire development will be allocated to office space, except for a small leisure and retail complement with wide public spaces. The first occupants are expected to move in within 36 months of the issue of permits and the entire area will be fully constructed within four-and-a-half years. The outline permit has been obtained and the excavation permit is at the application stage.

Pender Ville Ltd chairman Edmund Gatt Baldacchino and his management team are confident that The Exchange will create a new concept for the normally conservative financial and business sector.

Recent independent studies and quotes by leading estate agents have highlighted a lack of custom-designed office space in central locations with ancillary services for the employees. The Exchange will go a long way to alleviate this gap in the market.

The Exchange is envisaged to incorporate some 20,000 square metres of office space in three buildings, the highest being 18 storeys above street level, and 7,500 square metres of retail and leisure space on three levels. Pender Ville’s vision for The Exchange is to become the base for several financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and fund managers and advisers, including accountancy, audit and legal firms. The site will have five levels of underground parking, with over 650 public car parking spaces. There will be a large 2,000-square-metre open square with intimate spaces in which a piazza atmosphere, with free access to the public, is to be promoted. It will also include a domed food court.

The Exchange will be linked to its sister residential development Pendergardens via a pedestrian bridge and through a tunnel connecting the two underground public car parks. Mercury House and the Cold War rooms will be restored to their former splendour.

Pender Ville Ltd will manage The Exchange, which is expected to be operational at least 18 hours a day, and the company will be rigorous in maintaining a healthy mix of retail and leisure outlets. Pragma, a leading British marketing and business strategy firm, assisted Pender Ville in the design.

The Exchange takes its name from Malta’s first telephone exchange, which was situated at Mercury House. The name perfectly links history with the future financial and business concept for this new development.