Semi-sub resort for Malta

A Florida-based company is suggesting a project of enormous magnitude for Malta, which includes the construction and placing in Qawra Bay of a semi-submerged resort, casino and convention centre. The project also has the potential of providing the local shipyards with billions of dollars of business over the coming two decades.

The company, Cala dba UnderSeaResort and Residences, which has secured a 70% financing agreement from Credit Suisse for the project, is also proposing an unprecedented contract for Malta Shipyards, entailing the construction of up to 100 such resort ships over the next 20 years for export to similar planned projects in Europe, including Rome, Capri and Venice.

Cruise line companies have also expressed interest in purchasing the finished products, which cost some $400 million to construct and which come with a price tag in the region of $500 million. Cala UnderSeaResort and Residences chief executive officer Joseph Cala explained that he has been to Malta to discuss his plans on a number of occasions but has found the Maltese authorities to be, inexplicably, taking their time about coming to a decision.

Negotiations, he explained, have been ongoing for the last five months and talks have been held with the Tourism Ministry, Malta Enterprise and the Malta Financial Services Authority, which confirmed the company?s credit arrangements with Credit Suisse, Mr Cala explained.

“We have the financing arranged and we have presented the project but the Maltese side has been dragging its feet,” Mr Cala said. We have been trying to explain that we want to begin operations as soon as possible and if approved, we would be ready to begin operations next week ? that is how serious we are.

“I don?t understand why the Maltese are dragging their feet on this project, despite the fact that it had been welcomed with enthusiasm during actual negotiations. We have presented the project, shown we have the financing but they seem reluctant to take the big step. There seems to be a wall in place.”

The company has also turned down the investment credits normally offered as investment incentives by Malta, and Mr Cala added that all the company is looking for is for the shipyard to either build the ships for the company, or to lease the actual shipyard for the purpose. The company has proposed placing eight to 12 such ships, holding 600 hotel rooms each, in the “pristine waters” of Qawra Bay. Such a development would make it the largest aquarium in Europe, if not the world, and the resort would be of a five-star calibre including a casino and a convention centre.

Such resorts will be 40% below sea level meaning that some 10 metres of the resort will be completely submerged. As Cala explained, any such resort has to be floated, citing Dubai?s The Palm and The World reclaimed land projects as “a disaster and a disgrace to mother nature”, in that not only is the seabed destroyed by such activities, but such projects built straight on the seabed eventually and inevitably begin to sink further into the sea floor.

While the company plans to operate the Malta-based resort in the beginning, as in the case for similar projects planned for Miami and New York City, it would later be looking to sell the assets to hotel chains or other interested parties. The company intends building two to three ships per year in Malta and each ship, Cala estimates, would take some 15 months to complete. The shipyard is big enough to cater for the project, he added, but such a project requires the capacity and certain know-how for it to be undertaken properly.

If the shipyard is up to the challenge, Cala explained, the company would be more than willing to enter into an agreement along such lines. Otherwise, Cala “would like to persuade the government to lease out the shipyard to the company”, presumably for the 20-year time frame it has in mind.

Cala estimated that a project of such proportions would potentially provide direct employment for some 6,000 to 9,000 workers. If all the ships? fittings could be sourced and purchased from the Maltese market, the knock-on employment effect could very well reach the 20,000 to 30,000 mark.