JDC sell 50% stake in luxury Waterfront 'village' for £6.25million

Tuesday 15 May 2018

Half of the Jersey Development Company’s stake in a future Waterfront development of 280 luxury flats will be sold to a French company for £6.25million.

Group Legendre will now jointly construct the ‘Horizon’ complex with the government-backed construction firm.

The decision to sell 50% of the development, which will neighbour Castle Quay, to Group Legendre was signed off by outgoing Treasury Minister Senator Alan Maclean last week.

An agreement is still to be reached between the government and JDC on the dividend – both the amount and timing – that will be paid to the States of Jersey following Horizon’s completion. 

The 1,600-employee French firm is now looking to recruit a site manager to assist with coordination of the complex, which will consist of 131 one-bed apartments, 150 two-bed apartments and 35 top-floor penthouses costing between £250,000 and £500,000.  

Pictured: The Horizon development will neighbour Castle Quay. (Google Maps)

According to the job posting, their responsibilities will include monitoring enabling works, piling works, and excavation, as well as investigating “latent defects, and provid[ing] engineered solutions where necessary.” No salary details are given.

An independent adviser will also be engaged throughout the duration of the project – the cost of which is due to be met from the current budget.

States officials have since confirmed that the decision was actually made in October last year - but has only made public now that the process of ministerial oversight and due diligence had concluded. They added that the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel had been given a report on the Group Legendre agreement last year to examine.

The news comes after revealed last year that JDC had to borrow £6million from HSBC over a five-year period as “bridging finance” for the new housing scheme because it had not yet sold the first Esplanade-based International Finance Centre building as previously expected. They said that this was due to its reduced value as a result of unlet space. It meant that borrowing increased overall in 2017 to £55.2million, up from £23.3million the previous year.

Pictured: A daytime view of the 280-apartment complex. (SOJDC)

Then in January plans emerged to sell part of Weighbridge Square from their portfolio for £975,000, as well as selling 10 parking spaces for £415,000. 

Speaking in October, JDC Managing Director Lee Henry told Express that work on Horizon will begin in July 2018 – but only if 70% of the units are sold. It is unknown at this stage whether the new joint venture agreement with Group Legendre will affect the construction starting point.

A collection of buildings, restaurants and retail spaces, Mr Henry said that the company hoped the final result would be a luxury “village environment” with a focus on high-end food and wellbeing outlets.

JDC held their Annual General Meeting yesterday, in which it was confirmed that the companies total assets stood at £102.4million in December 2017 - up from £66.4million the previous year. The company's cash and 'cash equivalents' dropped by one million, however, with £1.9million in the bank.

The AGM also confirmed an increase in the salaries of the majority of Executive and Non-Executive Directors. The total spent on salaries across the board in 2016 was £430,000, which rose by £58,000 the following year to £488,000.