TOWERING ABOVE ALL OTHERS

Love it or hate it, we’ve all seen the enormous ‘tower with a twist’ taking its place in the St Julian’s skyline. Giselle Borg Olivier speaks to Joseph Portelli, the man behind the controversial project bearing the stamp of Zaha Hadid.

In recent years, the name Joseph Portelli became synonymous with development across the Maltese Islands. He is the name behind theĦal-SaghtrijaandĦalWardijadevelopments in Gozo, the Creekville complex in Swieqi, and the Ivory Suites complex in Buġibba, to name a few. He is also the new owner of the long-closed Jerma Palace Hotel in the south of the island.

Despite his lengthy development portfolio, Joseph Portelli doesn’t look like your typical development entrepreneur—there were no sharp suits with crisp white shirts when I met him. Instead, he greeted me in denim Bermuda shorts and a North Sails t-shirt. However, once we started talking, it was immediately evident that Joseph is shrewd and has the gift of the gab as he talked me through his vision for his projects.

Following an impressive presentation about the different developments undertaken by his company, it was time to talk about his grandest scheme to date: Mercury Towers. The former Enemalta building, Mercury House, currently houses the operations team behind the Mercury Towers project, and Joseph leads me onto a courtyard which falls directly below the twist in the tower. The height is impressive. Joined by colleague Claire Gauci Borda, we move to another room within Mercury House to conduct the interview that has been very tastefully set up as an office. →

...I’M BUILDING THESE PROJECTS BECAUSE THEY ARE ICONIC. I WANT TO BE KNOWN AS THE BEST DEVELOPER IN MALTA.

I was curious as to how a local developer managed to bag the services of an internationally renowned architectural firm.

“When I bought this land, the first piece for €25.5 million and the second piece for €13.5 million, I knew that I had a special location and I knew that I had a lot of square meterage which isn’t easy to come across nowadays. Therefore, I sought the top 5 architects in the world, one of which was Zaha Hadid, and I recognised that they were special as they think outside of the box. Their buildings are a testament to this,” said Joe.

“The next step was figuring out how to reach them; however, luckily enough architect Joseph Bondin’s friend knew one of Zaha’s friends, and that’s how the connection was made. My first meeting was with her CEO, and he warned me about their costs—I spent €11 million to bring Zaha Hadid here, and I did it because I wanted the brand name on my building.”

“My next meeting was with Zaha herself, and that was special because she loves Mediterranean cities and oversaw the project. Three concepts were presented to her before she was satisfied with the outcome. She then presented the project to me, which happened just a short while before her untimely passing.”

The background story is a great one and shows how useful it is to know people who know people, but those are staggering figures; Joe had already spent €50 million— and nothing had been built yet. One can’t help but wonder, what is the purpose of Mercury Towers?

He explained that“Currently, people don’t feel safe coming to Paceville with children, especially in the evening; however, Mercury Towers is aiming to change that because we will have security staff brought in from Israel. We want people to come here with their families to enjoy the plaza with its shops and restaurants and feel safe doing so.”

He went on to say that Mercury Towers will be “the beginning of the transformation of Paceville”, believing that the project will compel the surrounding establishments to upgrade their premises and what they offer to fall in line with a more family-friendly vision. He stressed that the area needs to become safer, pointing out that the behaviour of certain establishment bouncers is wrong.

“If they don’t start improving by opening different outlets, having different management, different finishes—they cannot compete with us.”

Joe mentioned that meetings were held with former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and the St Julian’s Local Council regarding upgrading the surrounding streets, however, he says that, “they simply placed tarmac again. That isn’t a change. A change is by pedestrianising the roads from 7pm onwards, for example.”

While the idea is certainly an idealistic one, it raises questions about one of the biggest problems that Malta faces—traffic and parking. Joe believes that the parking facilities offered by Mercury Tower, Pendergardens, and Portomaso Car Park should suffice to meet the demand; however, this isn’t the only tower being planned, as Paul Xuereb of PX Lettings applied to build a 25-storey tower, a few metres down the road which will contribute further to the congestion.

The solution to this, he says, is to have different projects across the island because people will have more options of where to go. He mentions his tourism project for the Jerma Palace Hotel site saying that it will be a place that will attract people from all over the island, including Gozo—although he states that he doesn’t want to see these types of projects in Gozo and that it should be preserved. “The Jerma will be as important for tourists to visit as Valletta and Mdina.”

I SPENT €11 MILLION TO BRING ZAHA HADID HERE, AND I DID IT BECAUSE I WANTED THE BRAND NAME ON MY BUILDING.

“This is the way that we can start diverting traffic to other places—although one project is not enough. Unless the government opens projects on the perimeters of the island, it’s going to be difficult to ease congestion; however, these sites are often opposed by environmental lobbies. We want sites that make sense for both ‘sides’.”

The first phase of Mercury Towers that is the tower which houses apartments will be finished shortly, with the entire project looking to be completed and launched in March 2022. However, those people who have already bought their apartment will be able to use them as soon as Phase 1 is complete, he confirmed.

He explained that the vision was to have a series of one-bedroomed apartments which were not intended for everyday living, but either for rental purposes or pads for business travellers. Certain investors have bought multiple apartments and created a larger living space; however, his reasoning is that if you’re local would you want to live in the middle of an entertainment area? Whatever the reason, the apartments have sold for over €10,000 per square metre!

The project has been plagued by controversy due to the listed building of Mercury House which had to be incorporated into the design. Zaha Hadid architects managed to do so; however, not everyone is convinced that having the tower emerging from Mercury House was the right way to go about things. Joe describes Mercury House as “his baby” and also includes the vaults (which will be housing spa facilities) in that sentiment. Mercury House is considered to be the heart of the project as the lone historical building surrounded by modern, concrete structures. He believes that having the skylight in the courtyard from where you can view the twist in the tower will be one of the features of Mercury House and ascertains that the challenge of incorporating the house within the design encouraged Zaha Hadid.

There is also controversy based on the size and location of the tower which Joe dismisses, saying that he used the footprint that was available to him and no more, with the only difference being that he built vertically rather than horizontally.

Furthermore, he stresses that he bought the land with an approved permit for a tower.

“If the tower weren’t big, it wouldn’t be an icon,” he says. “The façade alone cost me €17 million as it’s made from GFRC (Glass Reinforced Concrete), a material that has never been used in Malta before.”

Ultimately, as a 43-year-old contractor, what is Joe’s motivation? He says that he enjoys working on what he calls “special projects”

and not just regular apartment blocks which are built “to earn some money”. But he expresses his frustration at the government and environmental NGOs. They hinder his ideas, as by limiting the number of floors that he can build, this limits the number of units available which impacts the bottom line. Therefore, he cannot spend to have 7-star quality but must make do with 4-star quality.

Joe explained that former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had given the Jerma Palace Hotel site a 100,000 sqm development density, but this was reduced to 65,000 sqm by current Prime Minister Robert Abela— a decision he disagrees with because he cannot have a branded project like Mercury Towers.

“I started off to make money, but as time went by, I made enough money that I now don’t need to work anymore. I’m building these projects because they are iconic. I want to be known as the best developer in Malta.”

Giselle is a marketing professional, and independent writer and proofreader. She runs Content for Success.