David Lindsay
Fifteen years since establishing itself as Malta’s first shopping mall, The Plaza has had a design revamp and is on the verge of constructing a new wing.
Many, however, would not expect a large investment in a commercial centre in the midst of an economic downturn, but Plaza Centres CEO Lionel Lapira is of a somewhat different mindset.
“This is definitely the most opportune time,” he observed. “With all the potential new entrants to the industry, we could not afford to simply stand by and watch. You need to be proactive in this day and age, and if you speak to any investor they will tell that you now is the time to invest. My personal opinion is that if you are to move forward, you need to do so when times are challenging.”
With an average of 1.8 million visitors a year, some 25 million shoppers have crossed The Plaza’s threshold since it first opened its doors in 1993 – a lot of people and a lot of accompanying wear and tear on the shopping centre’s physical appearance, which led its management to undertake what was a challenging, 24x7 major overhaul of its four retail floors.
On top of that, the shopping centre recently received planning permission for another new wing over and above the one just completed and opened in April 2008. A year later, in April 2009, the planning go-ahead was granted for yet another extension – a 1,600-metre development of four retail floors and five storeys of office space to match the main building’s structure.
With work on the new wing expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, Mr Lapira sees the move as the next stage in The Plaza’s development, although, he adds: “We are also looking at other opportunities, both here and in other locations – but particularly in this (Sliema) area as we believe it is a very strong area of commercial interest.”
The Plaza is to hold a soft launch of its new look on 20 June, coinciding with Fathers’ Day, during which it intends drawing crowds to take in the mall’s new look, spearheaded by interior designers Michael Trapani Galea and Greta Apap Bologna who were given a design brief to “provide our customers with a new, exciting, emotional and revitalising experience when visiting the Plaza Shopping Centre”.
The task was, however, much easier said than done, considering that massive interior works had to steam ahead without causing too much disruption to the shopping centre’s daily business, while at the same time ensuring high safety standards.
But against all odds, the major work, carried out on a 24x7 basis, was completed within the two months between January and March of this year.
“The major challenge of all this was that we did not close the premises – that would not have been fair on our operators,” Mr Lapira recalls. “We all know last year was a very difficult one for the local economy – so we had to be cautious. While everyone was in agreement it was very important to revamp, at the same time we did not want to create any hurdles for ongoing trade.
“Clearly there was a certain element of discomfort during the process but the results are now there to be seen. It was important because, like anything else in life, it had become somewhat mundane and in need of maintenance after 15 years.”
The revamp was of a complete root and branch nature, with the centre’s floors, soffit, lighting, wall cladding, fittings and other interior features all having been reworked.
“Michael Trapani Galea and Greta Apap Bologna did a fantastic job,” Mr Lapira remarks. “All told, when you are used to a certain layout after coming here every day for 15 years, it is not easy to accept change but on the other hand, what we definitely did not want was a mere paint job – something that would be barely noticeable.”
Co-designer Michael Trapani Galea observes: “The crux of it was to nail the project brief without compromising it because of surprises and having to work around ongoing operations.
“What we had to do was bring the centre up to date, and the intervention was selected in terms of realising and utilising what was still of good quality while at the same time updating the elements that were making it look tired and aged.
“The approach”, he adds, “was to make the interior design as easy on the eye as possible so that shoppers would be re-attracted to the shop façades – a neutral scheme whereby the shops, given the choice, would be able to uplift their own shop windows without any restrictions from the outside.
“We designed a play of tiles running up the walls, of walls borrowing materials that belong to the floor and vice versa. We did not keep to the traditional segregation of materials, but rather merged them so the actual shopping complex does not have an end point, instead having one zone merging into the next.”
Fellow designer Greta Apap Bologna explains how the idea was to move away from the previous colour-coded floor scheme towards a feeling of continuity in which the colour schemes flow almost imperceptibly from one floor to the next.
Mr Trapani Galea adds: “The idea was to unify but not create a copy-paste scenario by making it a point to ensure, for example, that any certain patch of ceiling was not replicated a floor below or above. The concept is to give it a bit of a twist and to instead provide glimpses so that shoppers can still identify the floor they are on.
“Looking back, I can say that, even though work was complicated and held many surprises, we did not compromise on design, which normally tends to happen in such situations.”
On the difficulties of coping with unexpected situations arising when, for example, the removal of a portion of soffit reveals the unexpected, Ms Apap Bologna adds: “We always managed to either come up with a solution that was better than the original, or keep to our original plan and retain our concept completely.”