RBC turn down States’ scheme and pick Dandara

Friday 11 April 2014

The future of the States’ huge Waterfront office development has been thrown into question with the news that the key tenant that they were trying to lure has gone with Dandara instead.

The Royal Bank of Canada has confirmed that it plans to move into new premises being developed by Dandara adjacent to the Grand Hotel. The developers have won the race to secure the main tenant that they were chasing, along with the States of Jersey Development Company with their major six-block development on the Esplanade car park, and Les Masuriers with their plans to develop a major new block between Broad Street and Commercial Buildings.

RBC, with almost 1,000 staff in the Island, were the biggest target for the three developers, but there are other potential tenants in the market including BNP Paribas and UBS.

RBC confirmed yesterday that: “We have reached an agreement to relocate to the new premises at 66-72 Esplanade by the end of 2016. Under the plans, which are subject to final negotiations, most of our 900 Jersey employees will relocate to the newly-built offices, with the remainder being based at our Broad Street offices, which will be refurbished.”

Although the managing director of the States of Jersey Development Company Lee Henry has been unavailable for comment on the story, he had been confident about their proposal, saying in January that they were lining up to start work on the six-block site at the end of the first quarter or start of the second.

Last month, Environment Minister Rob Duhamel has given Dandara the go-ahead to demolish 66-72 Esplanade, 60 Kensington Place and part of 14 Patriotic Street to create a six-storey office block. The new scheme will see more than 17,000 square metres of Grade A office space with ground-floor parking.