1. Portelli’s start in Nadur and the hotel kept afloat by government funds 

Portelli’s career in development began as a small-time sensar in Nadur. He was moderately successful but was a far cry away from the magnate he’s known as today. 

He made a reportedly modest income but from very early on had his sight set on bigger projects.

Portelli’s first major venture was the Downtown Hotel in Victoria in partnership with Raymond Bajada and his family, auto dealers from Xewkija.

Their initial plans in March 2001 sought to develop a public square, terraced houses, entertainment centre and youth hostel spread over 8,700 square metres. 

The permit was denied, with plans to develop a hotel and a Class 4 shopping area being approved in October 2002.

Once opened, the hotel was reportedly struggling financially until the then-PN government stepped in and rented two full floors as office space.

A permit approving the change in use from a shopping outlet to offices was submitted on 3rd June 2008, three months after the PN won a general election by just over 1,000 votes. 

At the time, Giovanna Debono was the Gozo Minister under a PN government. The lease was the highest expense of the Gozo Ministry under her tenure, forking out €62,900 a year. 

The hotel would make headlines once again during the COVID-19 pandemic when it was used to move patients out of the Gozo General Hospital to free up space.

It has been serving as a temporary home up until latest April 2022 and has been paid handsomely to the tune of approximately €500,000 euros every six months.

2. Ħas-Sagħtrija: Portelli’s first steps into mega-development 

A few months after getting the Gozo Ministry contract in September 2008, Portelli set his sights on a development that would be the start of his journey to becoming the face of overdevelopment in the country. 

Portelli’s conversion of around 15 tumoli of untouched landscape into 75 luxury apartments in the Ħas-Sagħtrija area on Żebbuġ would set the blueprint for all his future projects. 

Described as a “bridge-builder” by many, what few people know is that Portelli rarely uses his own capital to fund his risky undertakings, steering clear of making enemies by collaborating with potential rivals and major business figures.

Plans to develop Has-Sagħtrija were not new, with speculators, namely Anthony Cefai, submitting applications for major development as early as 1990. Despite permits being approved, nothing materialised until Portelli came into the picture. 

Under the MENFI Ltd. label, Portelli brought hotelier and restauranter Adrian Buttigieg, Paul Sultana, former MP Franco Mercieca, Alfred and Jonathan Mangion (AM Group) and the owners of St James Hospital together for the Has-Saghtrija. Architect Ray Demicoli was entrusted with the project.

It was the launching pad in Portelli’s rise to the top. However, a close look at MENFI’s accounts, in particular, paints a far more austere picture of Portelli’s alleged wealth with MENFI’s debts said to be around €3 million, raising major questions over the sustainability of the projects or his stake in them. 

Beyond Sagħtrija, Portelli’s only other significant development before 2013 was a group of farmhouses in Qala, known as Villaġġ San Ġużepp.

However, Portelli’s unique talent in onboarding and nurturing his relationship with Malta’s political and industrial elite showed no sign of slowing down and his relentless curating of this network of relevance placed him in pole position for the seismic political shift that was to come in 2013.

3. Seizing on a political transformation in 2013 with John Dalli lurking in the shadows 

Malta was facing a political revolution in 2013 with Joseph Muscat leading the Labour party to the first of many landslide election wins. Portelli was still a relatively unknown quantity outside of Gozo and while he had built a network of contacts, it was his relationship with John Dalli that is said to have catapulted him into the mainstream.

Dalli, the former EU commissioner who is facing criminal charges for bribery, is not new to scandal and has a knack for keeping to the sidelines, but many believe that he played and continues to play an integral role in Portelli’s meteoric rise

J Portelli Projects’ registered address is even the same office of Corporate Group, the company once owned by Dalli that now remains in the hands of his daughter Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli.

Claire Gauci Borda even serves as J Portelli Projects’ CFO, despite facing criminal charges linked to a Ponzi scheme.

True to his modus operandi, it was only a matter of time before Portelli established a very close relationship with the Chief of staff, Keith Schembri, then seen as the Government’s factotum when it came to all business-related matters.

He has even boasted of his political connections and has admitted that he meets with politicians regularly to “speed up” the development process in an interview with Times of Malta.

Allegations are rife that Portelli would act as a front for investors looking to keep their names firmly away from the public record.

Although the claims remain unconfirmed, persons involved in funnelling their money to Portelli projects allegedly include Schembri, Yorgen Fenech and others. 

Of course, many would question what Portelli could offer them that would entice the country’s leaders to take him into their embrace.

But those who know Portelli and his operations intimately, have described him as a man who is more than happy to bask in the limelight and take the heat for his partners and investors, allowing them to take a more subdued approach.

It is also no secret that his main operational partners include other major Gozitan entrepreneurs, most notably Mark Agius and the rest of the Agius family, known as Ta’ Dirjanu.

4. Mercury Towers brings Portelli’s name into the mainstream 

His first major project under the new administration was a massive development at the Forum Hotel site, which is just one of three projects that have been completed by J Portelli Projects – the other two being the development in Has-Sagħtrija and Villaġġ San Ġużepp. 

However, his name only became a mainstay in the media once he turned his interests to the Mercury Tower. 

Plans to develop the Mercury House site and develop a tower were nothing new and had actually been part of the Pender Gardens project up until 2017. Portelli submitted plans for the site in July 2017.

The original development brief, which was approved as part of the €24 million 2005 concession, originally limited the height of the tower to 15 storeys and stressed that its use should be limited to offices, shops, and top-floor apartments and penthouses.

However, by 2012, the Planning Authority approved extending the plans to two towers of 19 and 18 storeys. By the time Portelli applied, the permit extended to two towers of 40-storeys and 25-storeys. 

A ‘compromise’ was reached which would see Portelli develop a single 31-storey building. Still, a permit for a second 23-storey building was eventually submitted and approved in 2020. 

Anna Maria Attard Montalto, who has since become a full-time architect for Portelli, was the lead architect on the initial Pender plans. 

However, since then, she has worked exclusively with Portelli on some of his most controversial developments, including a block of flats in St Julian’s with very questionable aesthetic value and a multi-storey block of flats in Qala that was submitted across six applications, a practice Portelli now employs with alarming regularity. 

Concerns over the project itself have been rife from the get-go, particularly after revelations that Mott MacDonald, a UK consultancy firm that drafted the government’s master plan for Paceville, had also drafted engineering reports for the Mercury House project.

The Paceville masterplan was shelved soon after and has been gathering dust as Portelli and other major developers continue to build in the entertainment hub despite its poor infrastructure and lack of open spaces. 

5. Portelli’s red carpet at the Planning Authority

Portelli’s development interests have grown exponentially since 2013 and include some of the islands’ most controversial applications whether that’s in Qala, Xlendi, Mellieħa and many, many others.

Claims that the PA “rolls out the red carpet” for Portelli are nothing new, with many activists insisting that his favouritism inside the PA’s structures stinks of alleged corruption.

Whether it’s piecemeal applications, ODZ development or even blatantly breaking the law, Portelli always seems to get his way at the expense of local residents.

The sad truth is that it is impossible to tell how many developments Portelli is a part of at this present time.

He regularly uses collaborators to front applications, taking advantage of the PA’s website which is extremely hard to navigate in terms of verification and transparency with no plans in sight to make the necessary changes to improve the situation.

Portelli has other connections to key construction authorities that are clear for all to see. Maria Schembri Grima, who was appointed as the Building and Construction Agency Chairperson in April 2021, works on many of Portelli’s projects.

6. Questionable finances raise major concerns 

Many have raised major concerns over the financing of Portelli’s projects, most notably Mercury Towers.

It has already generated €22.5 million in bonds from the public and issued another €50 million in bonds in March which were all sold. That means he has at least €70 million in debt to pay back to bondholders including interest. 

Portelli has long maintained that the sale of apartments, floors and other spaces within the tower has been able to fund the project, which is set to be completed by the end of 2022. 

However, publicly available documents from 2020 show that the tower received up to €30 million in promises of sale. 

Meanwhile, his ability to keep up with timeframes and deadlines has always been suspect. Most, if not all, of his developments, have failed to meet the promised time frame.

Mercury Towers, for example, is set to be completed by the end of this year but the completion date is looking more like 2023/24. Investors will remain patient, after all almost €30 million has already been invested and are scared to rock the boat. But Portelli is risking it all if he fails to deliver. 

Meanwhile, he has also started selling off apartments on plan at the Jerma Palace Hotel site, even though he is yet to even submit a planning application for the development.

It should be made clear that Portelli’s business endeavours stretch beyond development and includes hospitality through Quaint Boutique Hotels. However, his interests in the roads sector have raised eyebrows but not generated the same interest as his residential or commercial projects. 

It also appears that Schembri was at one point heavily in debt to Yorgen Fenech, the Tumas Group businessman who has been charged with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Chats between Fenech and then-PA CEO Johann Buttigieg allegedly show how Portelli owed Fenech “500”. In the messages, Fenech asked Buttgieg if he could identify any potential developments by Portelli that he could take over as a settlement of the debt.

“I want to pinch something from him. We can do business, you and I can split it,” he said.

Buttigieg did not take up Fenech on the offer, but suggested that he “take the one in Qormi”.

Portelli has also regularly refused to give an indication of his net worth, saying in an interview that he has no idea how much money he has, insisting that he reinvests it all.

7. Portelli’s interests in Malta’s roads amid multi-million investment

Excel Sis has been intimately involved in the development of Malta’s road network and involves Portelli, Gozitan businessmen and close collaborators Mark Agius (Ta’ Dirjanu) and Daniel Refalo and a Turkish company.

PL Councillor Kurt Buttigieg and arms dealer James Fenech were once involved but are no longer registered shareholders on the business registry.

It was opened just as the government announced a €700 million investment in the roads.

The company has been awarded millions upon millions in road contracts. However, it has actually seen a €55 million government contract rescinded after revelations that a bidder offering the same work for €18 million cheaper had been disqualified.

Excel Investments Holdings, which is the company linked to Excel Sis, has also engaged in development projects, most notably a controversial development near the Sannat cliffs which was approved despite widespread opposition.

Portelli, on his part, has reacted to his name becoming a mainstay in reports, using his close collaborators and associates, like Daniel Refalo, Mark Agius, Marlon Mercieca and Clifton Cassar, and in cases his daughter Chloe, as a front on planning applications. 

8. From Nadur to Ħamrun: Portelli and reputational cleaning through football 

However, that hasn’t kept the press from digging into his affairs. But Portelli has since gone on a reputational cleaning campaign that has seen him rise to the helm of one of Malta’s up-and-coming football teams, Ħamrun Spartans. 

This is not a new trick in the Portelli playbook, who used his presidency of Nadur to drum up support and secure the favour of local residents while he pillaged the island. 

Portelli was twice president of Nadur Youngsters, having been at the helm between 2002 and 2004 as well as between 2017 and 2020. 

It’s worked. He has been literally sanctified as Saint John the Revelator, been a flag bearer for religious feasts, and even scored a winning penalty in a league game earlier this year. 

And while he has since moved on to Ħamrun Spartans, his interests in the club remain clear with his young son Tristan Portelli replacing him as president. 

Admittedly, Portelli has taken an avid interest in his football clubs and has shepherded each of them to major honours in the Malta or Gozo football league interests. 

People in the know describe Portelli as a very much hands-on figure within the clubs – issuing inspirational speeches to staff and players and flooding Ħamrun with the finances to transform them into league winners. 

He’s made sure the locals know it. Portelli and the club spat in the face of COVID-19 regulations at the peak of the pandemic with the former even parading himself around in a car around the streets.

But Portelli’s interest in Ħamrun has little to do with the club itself, but rather ingratiating himself with a 10,000+ resident population that lies right in the heart of Malta’s political landscape – with both PN and PL right down the road. 

Aaron Farrugia, Malta’s former planning minister and current infrastructure minister, is from the district and has regularly uploaded photos alongside Portelli. 

Meanwhile, photos of Portelli with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the recent Ħamrun Festa have already made the rounds online.

Of course, Portelli and Muscat have now turned their attentions to the entire football pyramid, and many questions are swirling over their long-term ambitions. 

What’s clear is that Portelli’s plans aren’t stopping here.

He’s already said that Malta needs another 100 years of development and is already setting his sights on other major projects once Mercury Towers is completed.

Portelli’s interests have also turned abroad if rumours over the acquisition of an island in Montenegro are to be believed. However, his work on the Jerma Palace Hotel could be the start of him turning his attentions to the south of Malta.

It remains to be seen whether anything will develop but the deal does raise questions given Muscat’s government’s role in a controversial and allegedly corrupt purchase of wind farms in the country.

But that doesn’t mean he’s done with Malta quite yet, particularly given his expansion into football and his seemingly endless appetite for success.

For Portelli, this is just the start but whether he can stay top is still up for debate.