Iconic area for housing and urban renewal

The original concept design featured 100 studio apartments that will be put up for rental after the regeneration. There is a considerable demand for this type of property, but the type of properties available could very well change in the future depending on the tenderer. Depending on the final configuration of the project, 8 commercial units might also be included.

The area is primarily residential and mainly owned by the Government. The Ministry of Housing has slowly been decanting residents from the area to other flats. The result of that is that there is now a central island of over 1000m2 which is available for re-development as part of the urban renewal strategy of the Government.

“I think this is an iconic area in the upper town for Gibraltar as a whole. Road to the Lines is precisely what its name indicates, it is the road to the lines, the defensive lines in the northern defences which contain battlements, tunnels and bastions,” said the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia.

“There are adjoining individual buildings outside the current scheme which could also be refurbished and improved going forward. This is a very exciting project which is being launched today, and although it will take time to conclude, the end result will make the effort worth it.”

Minister of Housing, Samantha Sacramento said, “I’m aware that there has been criticism of the upper town because these properties have been empty but we have been conscious that they have been empty and we have been emptying them in a co-ordinated and strategic way so that we could vacate this cluster so we can then move on to the proposal and to the stage where we are now, and we continue to then do that with the rest of the upper town.”

She continued saying, “I’m very happy that we are at the stage that we are so that we find ourselves at this opportunity, we are getting rid of housing that was just not viable for the community and the tax payer and what we will have at the end of it is we will continue to provide housing as a result of the terms of this tender, but we will achieve a really beautiful regeneration of this area. It’s a win win for housing and a win win for urban renewal.”

Minister with responsibility for Urban Renewal, Dr John Cortes said, “It will be wonderful to see this area brought back to life. The Upper Town is a jewel and slowly we will progress its regeneration. This has the scope to become a tourist attraction in itself with small cafes and shops serving residents and visitors to Gibraltar. This will obviously subject to fill consultation as part of the planning process in order to fully protect heritage and other considerations.”

03-09-2019 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR