18 - 24 May 2000

Eighth McDonald's outlet at Bay Street

by Franco Aloisio

McDonald's will be opening another restaurant at Bay Street, in St George's Bay. This will be McDonald's eighth restaurant to open in the Maltese islands. At present McDonald's is recruiting staff and managers for the outlet in Bay Street. Meanwhile, Bay Street's retail area is reaching 100 per cent occupancy level.

During a meeting for all operators held at Dhalia's Head Office in Mriehel, Bay Street's marketing director Chris Grech said food and beverage outlets and entertainment areas at Bay Street have reached full occupancy. The retail areas have 90 per cent of all outlets concluded with discussions underway with a number of other prospective operators.

"We are on track for being in a position to announce 100 per cent occupancy in a few weeks' time," he said.

The aim of the meeting was to keep all the operators informed of all the latest developments of the Bay Street project, as well as provide them with technical information regarding the construction, security and information technology. The meeting was also addressed by the site project manager, Ben Farrugia and representatives from Shield Security and Dhalia IT. In his opening address, Mr Grech introduced the newly appointed head of the Discovery Centre, Anthony Buttigieg who had just returned from a visit to London and Paris in order to conclude the negotiations for the purchase and leasing of a number of hands-on exhibits. A major part of the exhibits will be leased out for a period of time from overseas so as to ensure continuous change in exhibits and a changing environment overall. All the exhibits are edutainment focused linking learning with fun.

Mr Grech also took the opportunity to introduce some of the new companies who were recently signed on, including Marsovin, which is to have a wine outlet in the Artisan Market, Marks & Spencer with the first food and wine outlet, Thomas Cook, Franks' Perfumery, Globe Investments, Mexx, Playlife, Ecco Shoes, Swinger, Travellers, Pedigree Toy Shop, Over the Skin and Croc Cafe.

The seminar was also addressed by Bay Street's project manager Ben Farrugia who spoke about the technical issues and design concepts of the project. Mr Farrugia announced that work on site is on schedule and 85 per cent of the external finishes have already been sub-contracted to third parties, the rest to be concluded by June. The operators were also addressed by representatives from Bay Street's security consultants, Shield Security, who gave a brief overview of the security measures and procedures that will be adopted to make Bay Street a secure environment.