Today, I managed to find Smart City, it took me almost an hour from St Julians to find my way through our nice little villages, stopping for ladies with their shopping bags to cross the road, horning the sleeping dogs away from the roads…
I arrived at a nice location, in the middle of nowhere, next to relict from the old world: old tanks, antennas, a fort in decomposition. A guardian house with a lonely man inside, two barriers, behind a car park and a red and white new building. There were flags of Smart City everywhere, and a huge Smart City sign. The guard has happy to see a soul and let me in. I parked the car in front of a huge zone where basic work has started (the cleaning up of the place basically). Franco DeGabrielle, the sales&marketing manager welcomed me and directed me to the model of Smart City to give me an introduction of the project…
Here are the headlines and plans:
– round 85 ha of surface
– mixture of office buildings, retail outlets, max. 3 hotels (150, 80, 40 rooms)
– apartments and villas
– projected workforce of 5600
– constructions split in several phases: phase 1 consists of 3 office buildings, the first one delivered in Q2 2009
– first building has MEPA permit issued, local developer will build it, 80% of space already leased out
– buildings will according to LEED Silver (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design#Certification
– the site will be pedestrian, there will be a circular road around the site
– the public will have access to it
Story to be continued…
