28 December 2000 - 3January 2001

Lm140m Tigné and Manoel Island project kicks off

by Franco Aloisio

Around Lm140m will be invested by the MIDI consortium over the next 10 years in the Manoel Island and Tigné project. Details of the first phase of the Tigné development, which will be completed by 2003, were given yesterday. No fixed date has been set for work to begin as there are a number of issues still pending.
The Tigné development covers an area of around 125 tumoli, stretching from the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel to the tip of the Tigné peninsula.
MIDI chairman Albert Mizzi said one of the main attractions of the project is the 75,000 square metres of exclusive residential accommodation in a pedestrianised and secure environment.
The residential centre will consist of blocks of three to four storeys high above the level of the main plaza, just over the underground car parking facilities. The Tigné point project will also cater for retail space and up-market offices, Mr Mizzi said.
MIDI’s chief executive officer Ben Muscat said the residential area will be ideal for a cross section of Maltese and foreign buyers
looking for a safe and secure
environment with landscaped surroundings.
A sports club, which will provide tennis, swimming and general health-related facilities, will be linked to a sailing and diving club accommodated on the south shore of the peninsula. The main pjazza will be the commercial focus of the development, characterised by a modern commercial and cultural building and will provide a large urban space. It will also include an underground car-park for 2,000 cars.
An underground relief road, across Tigné Point, will be built together with new and modern infrastructural services for the whole of Tigné, such as accommodation for Sliema Wanderers Football Club and the Assocjazzjoni Sportiva Tigné.
Dr Alex Torpiano, lead consultant of the project, outlined the status of the project. He said a lot has been done so far: the Outline Development Permit was issued in October 1999 and Parliamentary approval of the project came on 25 January 2000. The lease agreement was signed on 15 June 2000.
So far around Lm2m have been spent on studies related to the project such as the outline building and environmental management plan permits, an ecological appraisal survey, a detailed land survey and geo-technical investigation and
a marina archaeological survey.
Dr Torpiano explained the architectural process which required the digital recording and enumeration system of the features and stones making up the façade of a particular
building. The system would be used during the dismantling and restoration works.
He said two tenders were issued in November and December 2000. The first concerned the dismantling and demolition works, and the other was for the excavation works for the first part of the Tigné sports phase.
The Tigné project will also rehabilitate a number of historical areas. MIDI Consortium is finalising a heritage consultancy agreement with Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna. The heritage areas which will be restored and rehabilitated at MIDI’s expense include Fort Tigné, built in the 18th century and the 19th century St Luke’s Garrison Chapel.
Environment Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said the whole project will serve to revitalise Tigné’s infrastructure. He said the development will increase employment and will raise the standard of living in the area.