Diexter Thomas
THE Reserve, a building which is to replace the old casino, is set to be the greenest residential development to date in Gibraltar.
The Development and Planning Commission has accepted an application for the usage of the old casino site to be used for the new luxury apartment complex, earlier this week.
The old casino is thought to eventually collapse by itself unless something gets done beforehand.
This would affect the Victorian era water tanks underneath the derelict building, a major concern for heritage.
The old casino is to be hand demolished to make room for the new development.
In August, the Environmental Safety Group (ESG) were not supportive of the development, saying that the proposed development was too tall and affected the wildlife corridor in the area.
Janet Howitt from the ESG said on Tuesday that they were ‘very disappointed’ that this building was going to go forward.
A total of 111 luxury apartments from one to five bedroom apartments and a car park with 150 parking spaces will be available.
The developers, Morgan Carn Architects, have completed projects such as Ocean Village and Ocean Spa Plaza.
The Reserve will have 48 trees, replacing all the displaced trees currently there.
In addition there will also be a natural habitat roof and rain water harvesting to water all the plants.
A big inspiration for The Reserve is the ‘Bosco Verticale’ in Milan, a pair of residential towers that have 900 trees in total on 8,900 square metres of terraces.
Nine members of the DPC approved the development, with two against and zero abstentions.
Minister for the Environment, John Cortes said, ‘This will probably be the last large private development outside reclaimed land in the next 20 years.’
it would be great to see solar panels added to the top of the building if they are going to call it “greenest”
Now that a new, enlightened Socialist administration in Spain has abolished the seven percent “sun tax” (and it’s associated bureaucracy) there is no reason anyone should not install solar panels. It’s a no-brainer.
Never quite understood why more use of solar panels for heating in Winter and hot water throughout the year is not added as an extra or a requirement in Spain! Most properties for example in Cyprus have at least solar powered water tanks on their roofs, would think sun in Spain is similar to Cyprus year round.