On The Waterfront: politicians start asking questions

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Politicians are going to review the plans for a major office development on the Waterfront as we draw close to the seventh year since the project got the go-ahead with no apparent progress.

A panel say that it's time to review the plans for a six-block financial services centre with around 470,000 sq foot of office space – or around six-times the size of the football pitch at Wembley Stadium – which was first given the green-light by politicians in 2008.

Since then various dates about work starting have come and gone, and the project has also shrunk, with plans to lower the road running from the underpass and build on top of it scrapped.

The original completion date given to the States was between 2015 and 2018.

The head of the Corporate Services Scrutiny panel, Deputy John Le Fondre, said that they would be saying more about their terms of reference and plans for the review shortly.

He said: “Given the fact that the previous Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel did recommend that a review would be appropriate, as well as the continued public interest into this matter, the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel have unanimously agreed that this should be subject to a review.”

In April this year, it was announced that RBC – the main tenant that office developers have been looking to secure – had chosen to move to a new Dandara building on the Esplanade, not to the States’ Waterfront office scheme.

PwC and Ogier have also moved to the Esplanade in recent years, knocking back the chance to move to the States of Jersey Development Company’s scheme planned for the flat Waterfront car park.

When the news about RBC broke in April, the head of the States’ development company said that talks with tenants were still lined up and that work could start by October.

The website for the Jersey International Finance Centre still says that “construction of the first buildings will commence in early 2014 with completion early 2016”.