MaltaMedia.com

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has announced that the site of the former White Rocks tourist complex at Bahar ic-Caghaq is to be transformed into a €200 million sports and leisure village

The project will create of a minimum of 800 new jobs together with various sports facilities to accommodate the increasing demand by national sports organisations and a family leisure park.

The project will also help to develope the sports tourism market through the organisation of international sports events, training camps and conferences.

The project will provide a venue for a wide range of local sporting activities, hosting of international sporting events, commercial & leisure facilities, a hotel to support sports tourism and a multi-ownership complex that will provide the island with a new lifestyle destination to complement the sporting activities. It will provide a number of venues grouped in one location which complement and support each other. The project will also feature considerable landscaped parklands and pedestrian areas which will also serve as a family leisure park.

The proposal for the mixed use regeneration of the White Rocks area will be made possible by the innovative integration of different use types to create an attractive, coherent, economically and socially sustainable development. The developer will bring forward an interconnected, sport and leisure driven development that is supported by commercial, hotel and multi-ownership complex.

The White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village shall include the following facilities:

- A Rugby/multi-purpose stadium multi-purpose outdoor stadium, multi-purpose training pitches, tennis complex, beach sports facilities, and a BMX outdoor track.

- A multi-purpose indoor facility with the capacity of hosting 15 simultaneous training sessions of different sports disciplines including basketball, volleyball, fencing, table tennis, table football, snooker, billiards, pool, handball, judo and other martial arts.

- A Sports Science Centre to enhance local and foreign athletes’ performance and also to monitor the rehabilitation of injured athletes.

- A House of Sport, which meets the demands of the national sports organisations’ for office space, shared meeting rooms and conference facilities.

- A family park - landscaped parklands and pedestrian areas, outdoor gym, adventure park, a walking & jogging track and a cycling track.

- A multi-ownership complex including a minimum 200-room 4-Star Hotel and a maximum of 300 residential accommodation units.

- Commercial and leisure facilities which will be mostly situated underground below the family park

- Car parking facilities to support the activities at the site.

Through the sports and ancillary facilities present on site, the White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village will be the first holistic sport tourism destination that can host high level international events and training camps.

White Rocks Holding Company Limited and Resolution Property plc will fully finance the construction, operation and maintenance of the project.