Mercury House phase 2 : a social impact assessment

Abstract

In September 2019, Mercury Contracting Projects Ltd commissioned a Social Impact Assessment on Planning Application Case PA 1892/19 (EA 0040/19) to Prof. Marvin Formosa and Dr Maria Brown. This proposed the development of the second phase of the Mercury Towers project: a 23- storey building for residential apartments and a 4-star hotel which are located in place of the current GO Exchange along Triq Sant’Andrija. It envisaged that the existing phase 1 development, comprising the Mercury Towers, would be connected to this second phase by a 5-storey podium including a 5-star hotel, offices, amenities, retail and parking. For this assessment, fieldwork was carried out and survey data was collected during the period September - December 2019. The herein document is a report of this assignment. It contains an exposition of its findings as based on a myriad of primary and secondary sources that included published material, semi-structured interviews, elite interviews and a survey questionnaire. Heartfelt gratitude goes to the many people who granted much of their valuable time to put forward their personal views and insights on the possible and perceived social impact of the proposed development.