Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/992522
NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JUNE 2018 PAUL COCKS THE Augustinian Order in Malta has acceded to a request by the Curia's Environment Commission for full disclosure of details of an agreement with a private contractor for the lease of the Order's land in St Julian's, to be developed into a 12-floor complex. The Order's decision to lease out part of its property near the Augustinian convent in St George's Bay in St Julian's, and the adjacent chapel dedicated to St Rita, has met with public outcry. But the Order's provincial Leslie Gatt defended the Or- der's decision to monetise its property and confirmed that the Order had reached an agreement with Bay Street Holdings Ltd, which will be renting the land – currently used as a makeshift car park – for an unspecified number of years. "There is a rental contract on the land between the Augus- tinians and Bay Street Hold- ings Ltd, so no sale has taken place, neither any temporary or perpetual emphytheutical concession," Fr Gatt told Mal- taToday. The company, whose own- ers include George Muscat of GAP Holdings, and Paul Camilleri, has applied for the development of a 12-storey four-star accommodation building and office complex, which will tower over the St George's Road, and behind the monks' own convent and St Rita Chapel. The site will include 246 un- derground parking spaces. News that Archbishop Charles Scicluna asked the Church's Environment Com- mission to look into the agree- ment was revealed by Arnold Cassola, former chairperson of Alternattiva, who had pro- tested about the move on Fa- cebook. In a statement yesterday, Fr Gatt explained, that as per agreement with the developer, the convent and chapel will re- main a central focal point for pastoral work in the area. He said that the developer had committed itself to re- store the outer facades of the convent and the chapel and to ensure that more than half the site be developed into a public piazza in front of the convent. Fr Gatt said that, since the 1990s, the Order had been considering regeneration op- tions for the site. Many developers had ap- proached the Order over the years, expressing an interest in purchasing the site, and even the convent and chapel them- selves, he said. At one time, a commercial agreement for the empty site had been reached with a third party but had fallen through before it was finalised. Fr Gatt said that the income from the lease would allow the Order to further invest in its religious, social and educa- tional efforts and to restore a number of other historic prop- erties it owned around the is- land. Objections have already flowed in, among them from Simon Decesare, a member of the Eden Leisure Group which owns a sizeable chunk of real estate on St George's Road, among others, the Intercon- tinental Hotel and Eden cin- emas. Decesare said the proposed development would create a large, exposed blank party wall on St Augustine Street, direct- ly in front of the existing ho- tel rooms forming part of the five-star InterContinental Ho- tel. This, he said, would have a large negative impact on the hotel. Augustinians defend decision to rent out land for 12-storey complex Excavation works have already started