Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1311619
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS JAMES DEBONO DEVELOPERS Bonnici Bros. have presented plans to develop a 13-storey hotel on a row of ex- isting townhouses along Milner Street in Sliema. The development includes 56 hotel rooms and other hotel fa- cilities. The application comes in the wake of the approval last year of the redevelopment of the Astra Hotel, now owned by the Prelu- na Hotel, which will rise to the same height of the Preluna, once Malta's highest building. Subsequently, the Preluna also applied for a new 14-storey ex- tension on an existing seven-sto- rey hotel wing that overlooked Milner Street on top of the Sci- antusi pizzeria, which is adjacent to the hotel proposed by Bonnici Bros. If approved, the new hotel will create yet another huge blank party wall on its other side, pos- sibly paving the way for even more development in the same street. In this way the precedent cre- ated by Malta's first high-rise hotel, which dates back to the 1960s, is paving the way for hotel development of the same height in Milner Street, which is officially still designated as a residential area despite the var- ious commercial commitments undertaken in this street in the past decades. The Planning Authority had approved the incorporation of the neighbouring Astra in the Preluna Hotel, after the case of- ficer originally recommended a refusal when noting the Astra would be 7m higher than the Milner Street height limit, even after considering the extra three storeys allowed for hotels. Milner Street is zoned in the local plan as a residential area where new hotels are not nor- mally permitted. However, in his assessment of the Astra Hotel proposal, the PA's case officer acknowledged existing commitments on site for the existing Astra, the Prelu- na wing, the Europa Hotel, and the Park Hotel, and the fact that the area is part of a tourism zone. Bonnici Bros, a construction group with a major stake in road-building projects, have re- cently started to diversify oper- ations, recently reactivating an application to construct a super- market in Burmarrad – outside development zones – after Infra- structure Malta presented plans for a new roundabout in front of the proposed supermarket. Their application had laid dormant since 2018, but has since been resurrected after IM presented the plans for a round- about right next to the site of the proposed supermarket. Another supermarket, Scott's, is already present in Burmarrad. Sliema domino effect: 13- storey hotel on Milner after Astra high-rise The domino effect: after a permit was issued last year to the Preluna Hotel owners to increase the height of the neighbouring Astra Hotel to 13 floors in the corner between Tower Road and Milner street, a new developer now wants a permit for a 13-storey hotel on Milner Street