The Stivala dynasty

Summary

The Stivala family — principally Michael, Carlo, Adrian, Francis, and Emma — have filed dozens of planning applications in Sliema and surrounding areas, systematically acquiring, demolishing, and rebuilding the neighbourhood block by block. The centrepiece is Townsquare (PA/01398/23), which amended the original 2005 permission (PA/01191/05, originally by Joseph Gasan) to increase apartments from 159 to 234, add a hotel, and reconfigure the entire development. But Townsquare is just the flagship in an armada: the database reveals Stivala-family applications for hotels on the Sliema seafront, apartment towers on Triq San Vincenz, office conversions, and an expanding empire of hostels and boutique hotels — all concentrated within a few streets of each other. The family approach is methodical: buy, demolish, build tall, then amend upward.

Key findings

Townsquare: from 159 to 234 apartments

The Townsquare site at Tower Road / Hughes Hallet Street / Tigne Street has one of the longest planning histories in Sliema:

The Stivala takeover of the Townsquare project from Gasan is significant — it shows how development rights transfer between Malta's property dynasties. The amendment added 75 apartments (+47%) and introduced a hotel component that wasn't in the original vision.

The Sliema seafront hotel strategy

Michael Stivala has been systematically converting Sliema's seafront into hotel stock:

Four applications on one hotel site, each pushing the building taller or adding more room capacity. The 14th-floor addition alone (PA/03614/18) was a significant upward expansion.

The Triq San Vincenz corridor

Carlo and Michael Stivala have been developing Triq San Vincenz as a hotel corridor:

The PA/07299/19 application is particularly revealing: lowering ceiling heights from standard to 2.4m to squeeze an extra floor into the same building envelope — a creative (critics would say cynical) approach to maximising floor count without technically exceeding approved height.

The family portfolio

Across Sliema and surrounds, different Stivala family members operate simultaneously:

The family operates as a distributed development machine: while one member pursues a hotel tower, another is converting offices, and a third is building apartments — all within the same neighbourhood.

The amendment escalation pattern

A consistent Stivala pattern: build the approved project, then immediately amend upward:

• PA/03552/15 → PA/00918/18: Penthouse converted to apartment, new floors added
• PA/06140/16 → PA/03614/18: 14th floor added to hotel
• PA/01191/05 → PA/01398/23: 159 apartments become 234
• PA/03041/14 → PA/00769/16: Two additional setback apartments added
• PA/02965/23 → PA/00771/26: 14-floor hotel becomes 16-floor hotel

Each amendment adds floors, units, or changes use from residential to hotel (which allows greater density). The cumulative effect is a neighbourhood where every building is taller than originally approved.

Notable cases

PA/04417/22 — ST Tower, Ta' Xbiex. Michael Stivala proposed "alterations to development approved by PA2765/16" including the "addition of 2 floors and signs." Approved. The original permission established the building height; the amendment pushed it higher. This is the Stivala playbook distilled: approve, build, amend upward.

PA/08834/20 — Triq Sir Frederick C. Ponsonby, Gzira. Michael Stivala proposed demolishing 2 dwellings and redeveloping the entire site including excavation for a lower basement, resulting in "an additional 7 guestrooms; making a total of 82 guestrooms." This single application consumed 8 adjacent properties (Nos. 15-22) to extend an existing hotel. An entire residential terrace absorbed into a hospitality complex.

PA/00664/18 — Triq Ponsonby, Gzira. Another Stivala hotel expansion: demolishing a ground-floor shop excluded from the previous approval, excavating a basement for hotel facilities, converting an approved penthouse into a full floor, and constructing three additional floors. Each application in this chain makes the building taller and the hotel larger than the last approved version.

Why this matters

The Stivala family's approach to Sliema illustrates how Malta's planning system enables neighbourhood-scale transformation by a single family. When one entity controls dozens of adjacent buildings and systematically pushes each one taller through amendments, the cumulative impact on streetscape, infrastructure, and community character exceeds what any individual application review could capture. Townsquare's 47% increase in apartments (159 to 234) is dramatic on its own — but in the context of simultaneous Stivala hotel conversions, office towers, and apartment blocks on surrounding streets, it represents a coordinated remaking of Sliema's urban fabric. The planning system assesses each application individually, but the Stivala portfolio shows how a family strategy can reshape an entire district.

International context

In England, the override rate — where planning committees overturn officer recommendations — runs at roughly 5-8%. Malta's system-wide override rate is around 25%. But the Stivala amendment pattern exploits a different mechanism: rather than overriding recommendations, amendments are assessed against the previous approval, not the original baseline. Each step is a small deviation from the last approved state. England's planning system treats amendments similarly in principle, but the sheer frequency and upward direction of Stivala amendments — penthouse to full floor, 14th floor added, 159 apartments to 234 — would likely trigger a "material change" threshold requiring a fresh application rather than an amendment.

What this means going forward

The Stivala pattern exposes a gap in Malta's planning framework: there is no mechanism for assessing cumulative impact when a single family or entity files dozens of applications within the same neighbourhood. Each application is evaluated in isolation, meaning the commission that approves a Stivala hotel on Triq San Vincenz never formally considers the Stivala hotel on Triq ix-Xatt, the Stivala apartments on Triq Tigne, or the Townsquare mega-project three streets away. The combined effect on traffic, infrastructure, views, and community character is invisible to the decision-making process.

The amendment escalation strategy — approve, build, amend upward — also raises questions about the integrity of the original approval. If every approved building is systematically amended to be taller, denser, or changed in use after permission is granted, then the approved plans that neighbours and the public commented on are not what gets built. The planning process becomes a negotiation floor rather than a final decision. This pattern connects to Discovery 30 ("Two-Minute Justice"), where the pace of commission hearings means these amendments receive the same 2-3 minutes of deliberation as any other case.

Media sources

• "Townsquare: Stivala fits in 75 more apartments" — MaltaToday, 12 May 2023. Confirms the increase from 159 to 234 apartments and the addition of a 10-storey hotel, after Stivala acquired the project for approximately euro70 million.
• "Court tells tribunal to re-evaluate Stivala's Townsquare expansion plans" — The Malta Independent, 15 October 2025. Confirms the Court of Appeal ruled a hotel cannot be built "in the middle of a designated public open space" and ordered re-evaluation, validating concerns about the amendment escalation pattern.
• "Carlo Stivala eyes 15-storey hotel at Sliema Ferries" — MaltaToday, 22 May 2023. Corroborates the family's multi-front hotel strategy on Triq San Vincenz: a 15-storey hotel replacing a three-storey building, with the case officer having recommended refusal on a previous application for the same site.
• "PA approves new 10-storey hotel and more apartments in Townsquare Project" — Times of Malta, 16 November 2023. Confirms the PA approved a 90-room, 10-storey hotel alongside the 28-storey Townsquare tower, with apartments increasing from 159 to 234 -- directly corroborating the "amend upward" pattern. Former PA CEO Johann Buttigieg appeared as a consultant to the Stivala Group.