Facts & Figures - Corinthia Oasis

The land upon which the Corinthia Oasis Resort is planned measures some 83,500m²
It is fully owned on a freehold basis
The land in question 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
Permits for a 228-unit (735-bed) timeshare resort were issued by the Planning Authority in 2014, though works never commenced on site

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 has been concluded
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 has been contributed by Corinthia to widen and upgrade the adjacent public road
Corinthia has also fully financed a 320-space public carpark on an adjacent tract of disturbed land operated by the Malta Scouts Association. This carpark alleviates demand for parking by visitors to the nearby Golden Bay. The resort’s own parking requirements will be catered for independently of this car park via a 125-space underground facility located within the site itself and by parking 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