Court ruling halts Sliema Townsquare hotel plan

The Planning Authority cleared revised plans for the Townsquare scheme in Sliema, dropping an 88-room hotel after a Court of Appeal judgement in October 2025 found the proposal broke planning law in three ways. Residents and NGOs brought a legal challenge that succeeded where years of objections alone had not. The court ruled that the hotel, an 11-storey structure planned on stilts above the project's landscaped gardens, could not be built on land set aside as public open space.

It also ruled that restaurants could not be placed on residentially zoned land within the scheme and it ordered that every apartment must have a minimum internal floor area of 150 sq.m. That judgement overturned a 2023 PA permit which had allowed the hotel to be added to the site. ST Group, the developer led by Michael Stivala, had argued that building on stilts meant the garden would "continue underneath the hotel."

The court rejected that reasoning. Residents and NGOs objected that the structure would fragment the public open space and the court agreed. Under the revised plans now approved by the PA, the hotel is removed, a previously approved pavilion is reinstated, retail outlets are relocated and apartments are reconfigured to meet the 150 sq.m minimum.

Planning officials recommended approval, saying the changes comply with planning policies, reduce development scale by removing the hotel and increase public open space within the project. The 28-storey residential tower remains in place. Its apartment count will rise from 159 to 234 under the revised application.

ST Group acquired Townsquare in 2021 from the original consortium made up of the Ganado, Gasan, Soler and Trapani Galea families. That consortium had secured PA approval in 2019 for the 28-storey tower after an earlier 38-storey version was overturned on appeal. After taking over, ST Group sought to intensify the scheme by adding the hotel, more apartments, additional commercial floorspace and extra parking.

The project has been in and out of planning disputes for more than a decade. The 28-storey tower, visible from Valletta and from the Sliema promenade, is smaller than first proposed and stands without the hotel that was added after the site changed hands.