A planning application for the demolition of the Empire Cinema complex in St Paul’s Bay for the building of an 11-storey hotel is slated for approval, after a case officer recommended that the Planning Authority grant the permit.
The application, filed by construction magnate Carmel Polidano – better known as iċ-Ċaqnu, will see the once popular Empire Cinema Complex be completely demolished together with an apartment complex next door.
A 167-room hotel spread across 11 levels together with another five levels of basement parking, a restaurant, and a supermarket will replace the current cinema complex should the application be granted by the Planning Authority.
The planning application is expected to be heard today by the Planning Commission.
The Empire Cinema shuts its doors in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit Malta’s shores, and then simply never re-opened for business. It was built in 1997 and had seven cinema halls which together hosted up to 1,200 patrons.
The development, should it be approved, will not be the end of cinema at the site though: the project also includes three, albeit much smaller, commercial cinema halls.
The plans provide for a total of 161 parking spaces spread across five basement levels. A restaurant is slated for a semi-basement level together with a store for a supermarket – which is planned for the ground floor level and which will have a floorspace of 682 square market.
The first level of the development will include the hotel lobby, a hotel restaurant, a cinema lobby, the three cinema halls, a small cinema restaurant, four offices and a conference room.
The cinemas themselves will not be particularly large: Two of the halls will seat 70 patrons each, while a third hall will be just 36 square metres in area and will, according to the plans, accommodate 19 people.
The second level then includes an office, a boardroom, a gym, two lounges, and the first six guestrooms.
Each level from the third to the ninth then includes 23 guestrooms, bringing the total number of hotel rooms up to 167. 48 of those rooms will be standard rooms while 119 are self-catering, and the total number of beds that the rooms will accommodate is 334.
The application was initially for a 10-floor building with 144 bedrooms in the hotel, but an extra floor and 23 more guestrooms were added later in the application process to bring the total up to 167 rooms.
A second hotel restaurant will feature on the 10th floor, together with a roof bar and a pool, while the 11th floor will be made up of a roof deck with tables, chairs and deckchairs.
Assessing the project, the Planning Authority’s case officer noted that the 2006 North-West Local Plan set a height limit of five floors for the Bugibba and Qawra area which this project is situated in, but continued by noting that the 2014 Height Limitation Adjustment Policy offers the possibility of hotel buildings to have additional floors.
The case officer said that the proposed hotels fits the bill for this policy because it follows the principle that it will result in high quality tourism accommodation and a design which will ultimately make a positive contribution to the tourism industry.
It also fits the policy’s requisites because that floor space which is located above the statutory building height consists of guestrooms and ancillary hotel facilities.
The case officer observed that the parking provided is “satisfactory” for the project, and the proposal “will not affect the capability of local infrastructure.”
There was extensive communication with Transport Malta throughout the application process, with a Transport Scoping Study being carried out as part of consultations. This study “noted that the proposed development is likely to have less transport impacts that the currently approved development” and Transport Malta therefore did not object to the plans.
The Environment & Resources Authority had no issues with the project, and neither did the Malta Tourism Authority.
The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage noted that the existing complex is not of cultural heritage value and that the area is already “highly committed with vertical development.” The heritage watchdog therefore did not object to the development either, saying that it does not “indicate any evident threat to cultural heritage.”
Given the above, the case officer recommended that the application be granted permission by the Planning Authority.