Hospitality Malta HM03 | Page 30

Destiny now had called to pull Alfred Pisani in the direction of hospitality. After borrowing Lm9,000 for the works of the restaurant, for which his uncle acted as guarantor, Al- fred worked towards setting up and establishing this at high qual- ity standards. He remembers how at the launch on the 6th December 1962 he invited some 80-90 guests for a reception and then invited them to re-visit for a paid service. The business was successful however the follow up opportunities came about as a result of the developing socio-economic growth. Shortly after independence, the government was looking towards shifting the economy from one based on Malta as a fortress econ- omy to one based on hotel service and hospitality as also commerce, industry etc. At the time, the gov- ernment was offering support and funding taking the form of soft loans, grants per room, and sup- port in taxation and importation. In trying to tap into these oppor- tunities Alfred initially proposed a 40-room hotel annexed to the villa, however this would not qual- ify for funding as a minimum of 150 rooms had been set. As a re- sult, he revised the proposal to incorporate 156 rooms, and while government was supporting the 28 Issue 03 “There’s far more focus on the quality of the service and the general ambience of the build- ing, and this is what we consider to be our model in every property we want to develop” initiative, he required substantial funding through a bank - in fact the development’s total budget. In order to get funding, he went from one bank to another until eventually he got the possibili- ty for a hearing. He remembers visiting the bank, being called in by a girl at the fourth floor and then sitting in front of thirteen persons, including the Chairman of the bank, whose first question was whether he was attending on his own. At the time, Alfred was 23 years old. His major surprise came about when the request for the 100% loan was approved. Alfred’s father had some expe- rience with property and during his lifetime, he became acquaint- ed with a local architect who had just returned from his studies in the United Kingdom. This archi- tect was used for the design of the Pisani residence, and as a result a