Fortina Admits It Would Pay Less Today: Sliema Hotel Sparks National Row Over Changing Development Rules

**Fortina’s Contract U-Turn: Hotel Says It Would Pay Less Under Today’s Rules, Sparks Fresh Debate Over Sliema’s Changing Skyline**

Sliema’s seafront has always been a stage where past and future wrestle for space: limestone town-houses stare up at glass towers, pensioners feed pigeons beneath cranes, and the scent of pastizzi mingles with chlorine from infinity pools. This week the Fortina Hotel dropped a legal bombshell into that arena, telling a parliamentary committee that if its controversial 2019 development contract were being signed today it would be paying “a considerably lower” concession fee to the government. The admission has reignited a smouldering argument about who really profits from Malta’s skyline, and how much of the windfall ever trickles back into the community.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, Fortina’s legal advisor Dr. Monica Grixti argued that amendments to the Development Planning Act introduced in 2020 – which allow hotels to increase floor area without extra payments provided they hit green-certification targets – would have slashed the €8.7 million “voluntary contribution” the hotel agreed to in 2019. “We are not asking for a refund,” Grixti stressed, “but the law has changed, and under the current framework our financial outlay would be markedly less.” Committee chairman Beppe Fenech Adami shot back that the concession was “a gift that keeps on giving” to the developer, while Opposition MPs accused government of “moving goal-posts after the whistle”.

For Sliema residents, the numbers are less abstract than they sound. The 2019 deal allowed Fortina to add three extra floors, 120 new suites, two rooftop pools and a 400 m² spa in exchange for the €8.7 million sweetener and a string of public-benefit clauses: a pedestrian promenade upgrade, 80 public parking spaces, and a €250,000 donation to a local social-housing fund. Work is now in its final phase; passers-by on the Tower Road stretch have watched the hotel grow like a Lego set grafted onto a 1960s block. “They promised us breathing space,” says 72-year-old Tereza Camilleri, who has lived opposite the site since 1978. “Instead we got shadow and traffic. If the law now says they should pay even less, what does that make us – chopped liver?”

The cultural symbolism is impossible to miss. Fortina sits on the exact spot where British troops once disembarked for shore leave in the 1950s; the original art-deco wing was a honeymoon favourite of newlyweds who arrived on the now-defunct ferry from Valletta. Local historian Dr. Liam Pace points out that the hotel’s 1968 façade was among the first modernist statements on a coast famous for baroque villas. “Each generation rewrites the coastline in its own image,” he says. “But when the rules of the game keep changing mid-play, citizens feel the past is not being replaced – it is being erased.”

Mayor of Sliema Graziella Attard Previ echoed that sentiment, warning that “piecemeal legal tweaks” risk undermining social licence. “We welcome investment, but residents must see tangible returns – not just taller walls.” She has asked the Planning Authority for a socio-economic impact audit on traffic, waste and rental prices within a 500-metre radius, the first time a local council has invoked a 2021 clause introduced after public outcry over over-development.

Tourism operators, however, see the row as microcosmic of a sector fighting for survival. “Malta can’t live on nostalgia,” argues Arthur Grima, CEO of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association. “Green-certified intensification is how we stay competitive without spilling into ODZ.” Grima wants a national calculator that automatically adjusts contributions to reflect sustainability benchmarks, removing what he calls “negotiation fatigue”.

Economist Dr. Marie Briguglio warns the debate exposes a deeper equity issue. “If the legal framework shifts after contracts are signed, future developers will factor that risk into lower bids, eroding public revenue,” she says. “Worse, residents bear externalities – congestion, noise, inflated rents – while gains are privatised.” Her modelling shows that had Fortina paid the standard 2019 rate per extra square metre under today’s rules, the public purse would have collected €3.2 million less – enough to fund 60 social-housing units.

Back on the promenade, evening joggers weave between concrete mixers and selfie-taking tourists. Jennifer, 34, who rents a two-bedroom flat nearby, says her landlord hiked the price by €200 the week Fortina’s crane went up. “I work in iGaming; I can just about manage. But what happens to teachers, nurses, the people who make Sliema a neighbourhood rather than a resort?”

The Committee will resume hearings in October, when the Planning Authority and Finance Ministry are expected to clarify whether any “legal framework savings” could be retrospectively applied. Until then, Fortina’s glass façade will keep climbing, reflecting both the Mediterranean sunset and a nation wrestling with what kind of future it wants mirrored back.