The db Group has filed a Planning Application to raise the two towers that were approved on the former ITS site by 6 and 7 floors.

The proposal includes the addition of 76 apartments and 6 duplex apartments for a total additional 82 apartments.

The proposal would change the approved 18 and 17 storey towers into ones rising 25 and 23 floors.

Originally, the project had envisaged a 38-storey tower. The City Centre project has been one of the most controversial in recent times. The project had attracted thousands of objections when it first came before the Planning Authority in 2018. It was approved by the Planning Board, but was eventually revoked by a court in June 2019 which found that one of the Board members had a conflict of interest.

Eventually, amended plans for the project were then submitted to the Planning Authority, reducing the height to 31 floors. CEO of the Group Arthur Gauci said at the time that the group listened and acted.

The group then changed its plan again, to two towers instead of one, with a max 17-storey height. All the above plans also included, among other things, a hotel. All the while objectors continued to contest the project. 

In June 2021, the PA had approved plans for a 17 and 18 storey tower, along with a 12-storey hotel and a mall. Appeals, one of which had been filed by residents and NGOs, including Moviment Graffitti, Din L-Art Helwa and Friends of the Earth Malta against DB, the ERA and the PA, and a second appeal filed by the Pembroke St. Julians and Swieqi Local Councils together with the same NGOs and residents, had been filed after their objections were rejected by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal in December 2021. The court ruled against the appeals and the project was able to go ahead.

In October last year, the db Group and Hard Rock International laid the foundation stone for the Hard Rock Hotel Malta at the site.