Undeterred By Virus, db Pledges To Create 1,300 Jobs At Pembroke High-Rise Project
“I wouldn’t have stressed this a few months ago but the reality is that the job market situation has changed.”
Arthur Gauci, CEO of the db Group, has spent the past few years pushing forward a controversial high-rise project on the former ITS school in Pembroke.
From questions about how the company acquired the land in the first place and concerns by Pembroke residents that the project will ruin their town to a very public clash with former PN leader Simon Busuttil and the revocation of their permit due to a planning board member’s conflict of interest, the City Centre project has consistently been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting everyone’s way of life, the tourism company now has a new card to play.
“Malta is no longer in the situation it was in last March where businesses were struggling to find workers,” Gauci told Lovin Malta. “Just like the rest of the world, Malta will face unemployment due to COVID-19, but our business is ready to commit several millions on a project we acquired legally and which will create 1,300 jobs over a ten-year period.”
The project in question consists of a tower of luxury serviced apartments, a Hard Rock Hotel and several other amenities such as restaurants, including one in the barracks that used to house the ITS, a shopping mall, a fitness centre, a private beach club and a sky bar.
Although the proposed project has been downscaled by a total of 50,000 square metres since it was approved and then rejected last year, its impact on the area will still be significant. The tower will be larger than Portomaso, currently Malta’s tallest building, but slightly smaller than other projects in the vicinity, such as Mercury Towers, Metropolis Towers and the Fort Cambridge Hotel.
Meanwhile, an underground tunnel will connect the project and other proposed major projects to the Coast Road, where a new massive Chinese embassy has been proposed, and St Julian’s. If the plan works out, residents will be plagued by construction woes for a long time to come, and once it’s all over, their town will be unrecognisable from what it is today.
Despite the downscaling of the project, Pembroke’s local council is still opposing it on the grounds that it is “disproportionate” in a residential area.
However, Gauci insists the overall impact of the City Centre project will be positive, particularly in light of the economic slump Malta and the world is set to face due to COVID-19 induced restrictions.
He estimates the project will create around 1,300 full-time jobs over a ten-year period, over and above the 1,544 jobs which will be necessary during its construction phase.
It is expected to generate €490 million in revenue to the government over a ten-year period, comparable to the revenue generated by the IIP passport fund as of the end of 2018.
“In a post-COVID-19 scenario, does Malta need projects like this to get the economy moving again or do we expect manna to fall out of the sky?” Gauci said. “The economy is like a ship; if you don’t feed it fuel, it won’t sail. The economy’s fuel is fed by investors.”
“We are still committed to Malta and we’re still willing to take the plunge despite is all. During the 2008 financial crisis, we were the only group in Malta’s hospitality sector to invest €90 million over three years despite a shortage of tourists.”
“Many businesses are going to hold off investment now so it’s important that those who believe in the country put their money where their mouth is. We still very much believe in the resilience of Malta and its people; we’re a land with no resources except our people and yet we flourish. We shouldn’t be our own worst critics.”
As for Pembroke, he insisted that warnings raised by NGOs and activist have been exaggerated. For example, studies show that shading caused by the tower will only impact 3% of the town’s residents and mostly during the winter months, with the maximum impact being 90 minutes of shading a day during some weeks in December.
The development load over the nearby Għar Ħarq il-Ħammiem has been reduced by 43% from the original proposal, with geologists ruling the project’s impact on the cave to be practically negligible.
“We are one of the very few groups who are trying to engage with as many stakeholders as possible and the several changes from our original permit reflect these discussions,” Gauci said. “We could have simply ignored criticism but we tried to find a balance.”
Moreover, db has pledged €1.5 million in planning gain, which Gauci suggested could be used by the Pembroke local council to build a family park, construct temporary beach decking and build a residential parking zone.
db has said the Pembroke council will be able to build a family park with the project's planning gain
Gauci urged the public to support db’s proposed investment just as they are supporting social media campaigns promoting local produce.
“We’re a Maltese company who is ready to invest to regenerate the economy through a project that is fully legal and that won’t take up any green spaces.”
With COVID-19 raising many questions internationally about the future of tourism, some might well view db’s decision to build another hotel, their fourth in Malta, as foolhardy. And Gauci acknowledges that db’s decision to plough ahead with the City Centre project rather than adopt a wait-and-see approach is a risk.
“No one has a crystal ball to see what will happen in the future. We know that we won’t come anywhere close to last year’s tourism numbers this year and I will be surprised if we come close next year. However, we must be prepared to be the first off the blocks when the whistle is blown.”
“After all, if the number of tourists declines, then the tourists who come will seek the best and we have to invest to attract them. It’s a risk but it’s a calculated risk. It’s not an easy decision but it will help the country, and we believe Malta needs more people like us who are ready to risk.”
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