JAMES
DEBONO
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
9
NEWS
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MARCH 2024
Welcome to St George's Bay: Bridge to link
Decesare's Paceville hotels
A pedestrian bridge is being
proposed high above the main
road leading to St George's Bay
to link two hotels owned by the
Eden Leisure Group.
The bridge will link the pool
level on the 10th floor of the In-
tercontinental with the 4th and
6th levels of the Voco Hotel,
still under construction.
Plans submitted to the Plan-
ning Authority foresee the erec-
tion of a steel structure with the
inscription 'Welcome to Saint
George's Bay' written on it.
It will cement the insistence
of the Decesare family that
owns the Eden Leisure Group,
to brand the destination as St
George's Bay as opposed to
Paceville.
The 13-storey Voco hotel is
being built above the existing
Eden SuperBowl, which will be
retained.
The 338-bed four-star Vo-
co hotel forms part of a mixed
development that includes
4,497sq.m of office space and
2,137sq.m of retail space.
The hotel benefitted from a
policy allowing hotels an extra
two floors over and above the
height limitation established in
the local plan, despite harbour-
ing two large floors of offices.
Initially, PA officials had ex-
pressed doubts on whether the
policy can be applied due to the
considerable amount of office
space included in the project.
The development was eventu-
ally approved after the develop-
er's architect declared that the
offices will be used for the man-
agement operations of three
hotels - the InterContinental
Malta, the Holiday Inn Express
and the new hotel.
Moreover, according to the
architect a major part of the
office component will be sited
above the existing bowling ar-
ea at the corner part between
Triq Santu Wistin and Sqaq
Lourdes, "hence not within the
footprint of the proposed ho-
tel".
The application of the ho-
tel heights policy was also en-
dorsed by the Malta Tourism
Authority.
Architect's drawing of
the proposed bridge
