Labour Party extends call for lease of former Raffles disco

A call for expressions of interest for the lease of the former Raffles disco in St Andrew’s for commercial use has been extended by two weeks, but the Labour Party which owns this prized asset is still seeking to choose the preferred proposal by July.

Issued on February 11, the call was originally meant to close on March 29 but has now been extended to April 12.

Times of Malta sought an explanation for the extension and asked about the number of proposals, if any, which had been submitted to date.

However, none of these questions were answered, with a party spokesman saying that they would be in a position to announce the number of submissions received after the closing date. As for the extension, he said that this was granted in reaction to various requests from prospective bidders.

According to the expression of interest, the Labour Party is seeking to lease this Grade 1 scheduled property – the highest degree of protection enjoyed by historic buildings – for a period of not more than 65 years. 

The objective of this call is to “receive and evaluate commercial and high-level business concepts for the development and commercialisation of the property”.

However, the PL wants to...