Third finance centre building could be approved next week

• The Jersey Development Company has submitted plans for the third building at finance centre
• Scheme could be approved next week when it goes before Planning committee
• Temporary car park has been created at the Waterfront
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PLANNING permission could be granted next week for the third building of the Jersey International Finance Centre development.

The application for the office block, submitted by the Jersey Development Company, is due to go before the Planning Applications Committee next Thursday. 23 April.

To date the JDC, the States-owned company responsible for developing public land, has received planning permission for two buildings of the six-block complex and associated underground parking.

The scheme, which seeks to develop what is currently the Esplanade car park, has proved controversial, with objectors questioning the need for 470,000 square feet of new office space and asking whether the States should be acting as a developer at all.

The JDC have said that they are in talks with 13 prospective tenants who could occupy 330,000 square feet of office space on the site in the next five years and have completed a temporary car park to replace spaces lost during the building of the centre.

The public planning meeting, due to be held at 10 am at the St Paul’s Centre, will also consider a number of other building applications.

Senior politicians have said that the scheme is needed to safeguard Jersey’s future as a finance centre. And recently former objector St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft called on all States Members to get behind the plans, which are being reviewed by the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel, to make the project a success.

The Jersey Bankers Association, a group of 23 banks which represent the industry, recently told the Scrutiny review that there was still some appetite for good-quality commercial real estate.

However, the JBA also described a ‘subdued period of activity’ in the banking sector in the next three or four years, adding that there was unlikely to be significant growth in the number of people employed by the industry in that period.

• The Jersey Development Company’s plans for the Jersey International Finance Centre on the Esplanade car park site include six new buildings.
• Proposals were put forward in December for the third building in the scheme, which the Jersey Development Company described as ‘a clear sign’ of progress and interest in modern office space
• To date, the organisation has secured planning permission for two large office blocks as well as the underground parking that will form part of the overall plans.
• If approved, the latest plans would provide 69,000 square feet of office space in a building overlooking the roundabout on Route de la Libération.
• Lee Henry, the managing director of the Jersey Development Company said that the latest planning application envisaged outdoor table tennis tables for everyone to use and that future plans would include a café.
• Under the plans, a number of parking spaces have been relocated to unused scrubland near Jardins de la Mer while the work is carried out.