Naxxar parking area up for sale

The vast parking lot around the Naxxar Trade Fair centre is up for sale and could be turned into a built-up area. The land, covering more than 6,000 square metres, is owned by the Malta Trade Fairs Corporation and the Fairs and Exhibitions Limited, which is trying to dispose of its assets to close down the business. Corporation chairman Paul Abela, who is the company’s president and also president of the Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, confirmed the land was up for sale by tender. Interested parties have been asked to submit their offer for the land, which according to the architect’s valuations costs “millions”. However, Mr Abela refused to divulge the precise cost or how much the corporation was expecting to make of the sale as he said this could prejudice it. The area being sold is adjacent to the trade fair centre, a 44,000-square-metre complex which hosted the annual trade fair for more than 50 years. It is one of the few remaining open areas in the heart of Naxxar and is surrounded by a vast garden in the grounds of the historic Palazzo Parisio. The complex, owned by the heirs of the Marquis Scicluna, will not be sold, and neither will “parcels of...