Mepa approves €80 million Hal Ferħ tourism project

Mepa has approved a permit for an €80 million project to convert the Hal Ferħ  site in Golden Bay into a luxurious tourist complex. Hotelier Winston J. Zahra, who heads the Island Hotels Group, said his vision was to create a project  with an emphasis "on quality and not quantity". He said the nature of the new complex would be a first for Malta, centred around a luxury hotel which would be exclusive with a superior touch. The permit provides for the demolition of the existing Hal Ferh Holiday Centre and the building of the new complex, together with changes to the current road network and a new car park. "We want it to be a less is more approach with the least impact possible on the environment. We wanted a visionary design. We have been in this industry for 25 years and want to look back in 20 year's time and say we created something good," Mr Zahra said.  The group has been working  on the project for two years. It expects the new complex to  create around 300 jobs aside from another 350 during the project development. The site covers 102,700 square metres - of which 17,000 will be built up. Mr Zahra said that they had given up around 3,000 square metres of land to upgrade the...