The finer details
An oasis of tranquility in the making
Corinthia Oasis
The land upon which the Corinthia Oasis Resort is planned is owned on a freehold basis and measures some 83,500m2. It is a brown-field site containing a series of derelict and disused buildings – some originally utilised as military barracks and later as the Hal-Ferh Holiday Complex. Island Hotels Group originally acquired the land and the abandoned hotel from the Government of Malta in 2009 with permits for a 228-unit (735-bed) timeshare resort issued by the Planning Authority in 2014 however, works never commenced.
Corinthia Oasis, Malta
Moving Forward
- The site was then purchased by Corinthia when acquiring the Island Hotels Group in 2015
- The 2009 acquisition was subject to a Development Brief which was revised in January 2021
- The Development Brief allows 25,000m2 of Gross Floor Area (GFA) to be built on the site, on a footprint of 16,7002 (20% of the total area.) It also limits heights to two floors
- The Land Deed, with which the property was originally acquired in 2009, permitted the continued use of the site for hospitality – and furthermore included a mechanism for the owner to convert a portion of GFA to other uses
- The change to allow for the conversion of 9,000m2 of buildable GFA to serviced residences was ratified in 2021 and Government’s incremental valuation process is currently underway
- The reason Corinthia has sought to convert part of its permitted GFA from permanent timeshare to permanent residential use is to spread the risk between tourism and other uses and to generate a degree of upfront, one-time income to enable the financing of the project.
- Instead of a large-scale timeshare development, Corinthia envisages a low-density, 162-key resort hotel, a top-tier spa and wellness centre, 25 detached hotel-serviced residences and a host of ancillary resort amenities
- This combination of hotel and residential use has been successfully employed by Corinthia in its flagship projects in the past, including those in sensitive locations such as central London, St Petersburg and Budapest, amongst others
- Whilst the Hotel will be of a higher category, will employ more staff, and include more extensive facilities and amenities than the currently-approved timeshare project that it plans to replace, it will comprise far fewer beds than the previous scheme and will be substantially less intrusive on the locality
- The architecture envisaged for the project is sympathetic to the surrounding environment and inspired by Maltese architecture of the past
- It will embrace sustainability principles from the outset, from design, through construction and on to operations
- c.65% of the total built GFA will be allocated for Hospitality use, whilst c.35% will be earmarked for Residential use
- Circa 3,000m2 of land will be contributed by Corinthia to widen and upgrade the adjacent public road
- Corinthia will also be financing a 320-space public carpark on an adjacent tract of disturbed land operated by the Malta Scouts Association. This carpark is intended to alleviate demand for parking by visitors to the nearby Golden Bay. The resort’s own parking requirements will be catered for via a 125-space underground carpark located within the site itself and by parking facilities located under the residences
- Once complete, the project is envisaged to create over 200 new full-time jobs, with many more personnel engaged during the construction and fit-out process