“One could build a Montmartre at Fort Regent"

Friday 31 March 2023

Jersey needs to avoid “incrementalism” and deliver a bold vision to make the island attractive to visitors and private investment, a local resident whose investment company owns Portugal’s largest marina has said.

Zach Lewy, who moved to the island with his family two years ago, is the CEO of Arrow Group, a fund and asset management firm which has invested heavily in the Portuguese hospitality sector, including acquiring Marina de Vilamoura on the Algarve.

Mr Lewy was interviewed as part of a Jersey Hospitality Networking Lunch, which was held at the Radisson Hotel this week.

The Government is currently devising a new Tourism Strategy, its first since 2004 and its first ever to focus on all sectors of the hospitality sector and not just visitors.

A steering group has been created which includes industry groups, including the JHA, Visit Jersey and Chamber of Commerce.

Picture: Mr Lewy was interviewed for a lunch organised by the Jersey Hospitality Association.

Mr Lewy said projects he had been involved with in Portugal, which had included investing £0.5 billion in a town smaller than Jersey, had succeeded because there was a shared vision across all stakeholders, including the municipality.

“In the absence of a joined-up stakeholder plan, things tend to go terribly,” he said. 

“Here, we want to get to a destination which is special to Jersey, which is agreed. What we do with the Fort or the Waterfront can’t be incremental decisions because they are unlikely to attract private capital to lean in.”

Pictured: Jersey resident and investor Zac Lewy.

Mr Lewy said that the Waterfront had not been well coordinated and Fort Regent was no longer an attraction, and while St. Brelade’s Bay was beautiful, no substantial visitor amenity had been built there.

“There is a scope to create attractive mixed-use schemes,” he said; “One could build a Montmartre at Fort Regent and residential real estate is the obvious funding mechanism.”

Mr Lewy also highlighted Strive in St. Peter as another potential island ‘destination’.

“Events on beaches, an arena near the Airport and mixed-use facilities at the Waterfront and Fort Regent … these are opportunities to turn the page.

“There needs to be anchored and headlining experiences that put Jersey on the map and give people that sense of ‘FOMO’. I don’t think you can do that with a 50-year-old infrastructure and no clear vision.”

Speakers at a later panel discussion at the JHA event included outgoing Government CEO Suzanne Wylie, who talked about her experiences of building Northern Ireland into a visitor destination, JHA President Marcus Calvani, and Hotel de France owner Robert Parker.

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Pictured top: The Montmartre district in Paris.