Developer Mark Agius, who is one of Joseph Portelli’s business associates, is requesting an additional floor for the already approved 10-storey hotel near university, to make it an 11-story hotel.

The plans to construct this hotel are found on the corner of Paolo Debono street and Mons. Carmello Zammit street, which would replace the building which formerly housed Mireva bookshop.

These plans date back to December 2019 when a case officer’s recommendation to refuse permission was overruled by the Planning Commission. Later, Agius had proposed plans to extend the hotel and increase the rooms to 72, where the case officer disagreed but had no option but to recommend granting this application because the original plans were already approved.

Now they are requesting to extend another floor to make the hotel an 11-storey hotel.

All the plans were presented by architect, Maria Schembri Grima, who is regularly invested in projects proposed by Portelli’s work and serves as chairperson of the Building and Construction Agency which regulates the construction sector.

The case officer stated that the proposed plans of the hotel were in breach of the local plans because hotels are not considered to be of acceptable use in the area. The area’s local plans state that the zone has a building height limit of four storeys and a semi-basement and the area should be used for student accommodation, housing and other student-related shops. It excludes tourism development in the area.

Also, the case officer said that the Class-3B hotel exceeds the Height Limitation Adjustment Policy For Hotel which states that you can only extend the hotel by two storeys if the design feature incorporates the environment well and does not leave any blank walls. However, the case office further said that the hotel would negatively impact the environment because it would create exposed blank party walls.

Moreover, Din l-Art Helwa were also vocal about their objections to the hotel. They argued that the hotel would not incorporate well within such an already densely built urban area.

Simon Saliba, the architect who chaired the planning commission said that he approved the development of the hotel because of the similar commitments for other hotels in the area.