John Culatto
THE latest developer of the Eastside Project has made a £90 million cash payment to take over the site in a deal that will provide £330 million in value for the Gibraltar Government.
The government chose TNG Global Foundation as the highest bidder for the Eastside Reclamation.
Minister for Economic Development Sir Joe Bossano said the investment will give a £2.5 billion injection to the economy over ten years.
The government said it has been in ‘very positive’ talks with TNG Global since 2021.
Apart from the cash payment TNG Global will provide £118 million for the coastal defensive revetments for both Hassan Centenary Terraces and the rest of Eastside.
As part of the deal, it will build 100 affordable homes at a value of £30 million and 400 small boat berths that will cost £20 million.
TNG Global will build parking for about 500 cars at Catalan Bay that will be free in the summer months for beachgoers.
Finally, the company will save the government £60 million by removing the rubble mountain from the Eastside reclamation.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said he was hoping it was ‘third time lucky’ for the development after previous deals fell through.
But he said that he believed TNG Global would succeed where others failed because it has ‘funding already available to it within the group’.
Bossano called the deal ‘a welcome investment at this time’ especially considering government finances and ‘the worldwide economic climate’.
Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia added that the ideas shared by the developer are ‘sensitive to the environment and to the location’.
Vietnamese businessman Tuan Tran heads up the TNG Foundation.
He owns Trusted Novus bank in Gibraltar that donated £200,000 to the GHA’s COVID-19 fund in 2018.
TNG also recently bought the Bayside Road site from the government for just over £21 million.
The investor is already building two new schools to be able to take possession of the Bayside site to build homes, offices and commercial units.
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