Plans for a wellness club featuring saunas, ice baths and a therapy pool at the Waterfront have been abandoned after rising construction costs left the project financially unviable.
Sauna Society founder Cole McLean has confirmed that the proposed facility – which received planning permission last year – would no longer be built in St Helier.
He said complicated structural requirements, the cost of developing the site and the prospect of eventually having to remove the facility meant the scheme “simply stopped making financial sense”.
The club was due to open next to the AquaSplash this year and include two 20-person saunas, six ice baths, a heated magnesium contrast pool and indoor-outdoor recovery areas.
Mr McLean wrote: “For anyone who has invested, followed the journey, or is still wondering whether our Waterfront wellness project is going ahead, the answer is no.”
He described the site as a flower bed or “dead space” with poor drainage and limited options for installing the large chiller units needed for the ice baths.
Mr McLean said the structural approval process for the proposed building, which was being manufactured in Turkey, had also become particularly complex. A substantial amount of additional steel would have been required beneath the structure.
“The amount I eventually spent on plans, building regulations, surveys, engineering and structural work would probably make most people feel slightly sick,” he said.
“Combine that with rising construction costs and the project simply stopped making financial sense.”
Planning permission for the club was granted in September 2025, when Mr McLean said the development would “breathe new life into the area” and provide a healthy, social alternative to alcohol-focused activities.
The facility would have become the Sauna Society’s second location, alongside its existing operation at St Catherine’s.
The amount I eventually spent on plans, building regulations, surveys, engineering and structural work would probably make most people feel slightly sick
cole mclean, sauna society founder
However, Mr McLean said the Waterfront site was only available for nine years and the required upfront investment was becoming “immense”.
He believed the project could have succeeded, but said similar or better facilities could be created elsewhere for considerably less money.
He said: “The Waterfront scheme would have been amazing, but the thought of spending hundreds of thousands building it, only to eventually rip everything down, move hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of equipment, find another site and then return the original site to its previous condition became a massive red flag. So, eventually, it became a no.”
Mr McLean added that he had now agreed on a new location for a sauna wellness facility, although further details have not yet been announced.
He also revealed that he was seeking fresh planning permission to allow the existing Sauna Society at St Catherine to remain for another three years.
Despite describing the past six months as difficult, Mr McLean said he remained committed to developing businesses in the Island.
“Jersey doesn’t have a shortage of people with ideas,” he added. “It has a problem turning ideas into reality without exhausting the people trying to build them.”
