Our vision for Trident Park
This year under review has been characterised by the extensive works being undertaken on the Trident Park project, a landmark redevelopment of an iconic 1950 brewery heritage site into a state-of-the-art green office campus.
Inspired out of a great sense of respect and sensibility for the high quality architectural and engineering excellence of the building, Trident Park has been designed as a Class A destination, which not only pays tribute to the proud past of the pioneering brewery, but also adds value to the surrounding built environment and the development of Malta’s product-offering.
The vision for this prestigious redevelopment is to create an exceptional and state-of-the-art work environment in which businesses can flourish and excel through enhanced employee collaboration, satisfaction and well-being. The development will consist of seven modern, low-density and lowrise buildings, terraced office blocks with extensive landscaped courtyard gardens and direct access to outdoor circulation space at each floor level. Each floor will feature uninterrupted natural light and air from the adjoining gardens on either side.
Designed to meet the strictest of environmental codes and aimed at attaining the BREEAM Excellent certification, this unique redevelopment will introduce the highest standard environmental technologies, including those for the cooling and heating of the buildings. It will also seek to optimise natural lighting and ventilation, while minimising the environmental footprint in order to create a genuine and vibrant green office campus and world-class business destination.
The Development With a Built Area Ratio of just 43%, large areas that could otherwise have offered further workspaces will be used as courtyards/gardens and landscaping, with a general development approach that attaches more weight to quality rather than quantity within a low-density and recessed building. The facilities and the campus-like environment enhance the surrounding working spaces and, we believe, will give Trident Park a competitive and unique offering to those businesses that are seeking high quality, prestige and uniqueness.
All office blocks will be connected to a multi-level naturally ventilated car park with 700 car spaces, via walkways located outside the office spaces, thereby increasing the efficiency of the internal areas. The third and fourth floors of each office block will be recessed and provide terraces overlooking the gardens and the private driveway. Each floor will have balconies abutting the west side and overlook the gardens/courtyards. The central building will house the main reception and will include the retained elegant former brewery board room, being converted into an exclusive business lounge and a 170-seat conference/meeting hall with supporting amenities, which will be available for use by tenants.
Six soft-landscaped gardens will each feature their unique character and dominant colours using carefully selected flora consisting of indigenous trees and plants. The gardens are situated between the office blocks, thus limiting the amount of internal solar gain and keeping the area shaded and cool.
The Brewhouse and amenities Trident Park is flanked by the historic old Farsons Brewhouse, previously home to the brewing and bottling of many of Malta’s iconic beverages and brands,
which is contemporaneously being restored and rehabilitated by Simonds Farsons Cisk plc into a unique, mixeduse development. The facilities being offered will include food and beverage outlets, a micro-brewery, a Cisk Sky Bar, flexible industrial workspace, events spaces, and a visitors’ experience and brand store. This will provide a quality social lifestyle environment and an enhanced employee experience for those working at Trident Park. Trident Park will offer other amenities and support services to its community of users, including a large and well-equipped gym that will be complemented by a wellness area, and also a childcare centre
Sustainability
The design of the office blocks utilises the principle of a thermally activated building system (known as TABS) for air-conditioning purposes. This system relies on a combination of ventilation, delivered using a raised floor as a plenum, dehumidified fresh air supply, and cooled ceilings, thus providing a uniquely low‐energy source of local cooling. Pipework will be embedded within the concrete ceiling slabs to keep buildings comfortably cool. By circulating cool water through the pipes in the slabs, the absorbed heat will be continually removed, so that the concrete retains its capacity to continuously cool the space.
This system of air-conditioning which will be employed within this green office campus is innovative and unique to Malta. It is designed with the employee in mind in that comfort conditions are not jeopardized by unwanted draughts from fan coil units and areas of inconsistent temperatures. The cooling philosophy of Trident Park is that all employees can walk into an office which has optimum climate conditions at the start of the day because the heat would have been absorbed overnight through the concrete ceiling slab and will prevail during the day as the chilled water flow-rate in the slabs fluctuates according to the heat gains. The ventilation system has been designed to provide sufficient air to control indoor air quality and keep the offices feeling fresh.
Works on Trident Park
Following the dismantling and decontamination of the old Farsons’ bottling operations and administration offices in accordance with rigorous environmentally-supportive processes,
including the careful separation and disposal of materials, the demolition and excavation processes commenced in May 2018. Preparation for the foundations started towards the end of August 2018.
A new 550m² basement space was created after the rock levels were found to be below that anticipated. Part of this area will be leased out and partly retained by Trident Park for storage purposes.
Civil Works
The civil works contract was awarded to C&F Contractors Limited. They have invested heavily in the project and acquired new vehicles and plant as well as introducing an innovative formwork system that is allowing for an efficient forming of walls, columns and slabs. The resulting finish of the concrete is exceptional.
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and TABS works packages
The contract for mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) works including the TABS (thermally activated building systems) has been awarded to Panta Contracting Limited. As at the time of writing this review, four roof slabs have been successfully cast with TABS, covering an area of circa 2,000m2. According to the current works schedule, we expect full mobilisation in the last quarter of 2019.
Finishes Package
After an intense competitive bid process, the finishes works package has been awarded to Hal Mann Vella Group. Hal Mann have committed to delivering the International Grade A quality offices that we are aspiring to achieve. Resources are expected to be mobilised by the third quarter of this year.
Funding
Funding for the development of the Trident Park project has been planned to incorporate an appropriate and prudent mix of own funds, debt and new equity financing. All funding arrangements are in place to finance the development of Trident Park. Whilst the debt financing in the form of term bank loans has been arranged with APS Bank plc, a €15 million new equity financing through a rights issue is being planned towards the last quarter of 2019. The three principal shareholders (who, together own 75% of the Company’s shares) have signed an undertaking agreement to take up their proportionate share of this issue. Trident’s balance sheet boasts total assets of €43 million, of which the value of investment property amounts to €38 million. €23 million worth of the properties are free and unencumbered and can be used should any further financing support be needed.
The funding model used anticipates a resulting gearing ratio (net debt / total funding) that will not exceed 35%, which we believe represents an appropriately resilient and prudent funding model.
Scotsman Pub
The lease of the Scotsman Pub expired in April 2018 and the Company has entered into a new lease agreement for a period of 10 years. Following a refurbishment of the premises, the new tenant opened its doors in July 2018.
Conclusion
With the development of the Trident Park project well under way, our focus is now shifting to attracting tenants to this state-of-the-art green office campus. The number of enquiries and
interest received to date has been encouraging, and we are looking forward to finalise an agreement with an anchor tenant within the coming months.
The achievements over the last year would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of our team and that of our business partners. In particular, I would like to extend my gratitude to our Board of Directors, ably chaired by Louis A. Farrugia, for their continued guidance, and to all my team for the strong support throughout the year. A word of thanks is due to our consultants, Ian Ritchie Architects, TBA Periti, Resolve Consulting, Sphere Projects, Terracore, APM Solutions and our project partners, C&F Contractors, Panta Contracting and Hall Mann Vella.
Thanks are also due to our legal advisors, Mamo TCV, our financial advisors and auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, and our financial intermediary Rizzo Farrugia. Last but not least, I would like to thank our neighbouring residents and apologise for any inconvenience we may be causing during the construction of Trident Park. We shall continue in our endeavour to mitigate any inconvenience that may be caused during the development of the project.
We remain determined to deliver a prestigious project on schedule and within our established budgetary parameters.
