‘We can start building the finance centre’ say JDC, after first tenant revealed

States-owned developers the Jersey Development Company announced on Friday that UBS, an investment banking company, had agreed to lease 16,500 square feet of office space, which is around a quarter of the total floor space offered by the building.

Chairman of the JDC Mark Boleat said that the construction of the first office block would be financed by a loan from HSBC and that the JDC could begin building as it had met the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding it had with the States.

Mark Boleat

That agreement stated that the company would not start construction at the Esplanade car park until it had a sufficient level of pre-lease agreements in place.

The news comes following the launch of a new petition against the building project and the announcement of plans to form a ‘human chain’ around the proposed building site to show politicians the strength of public opposition to the scheme.

Mr Boleat, who denied there was a groundswell of opposition to the plans, said: ‘We have adequate financing to complete the construction of the building.

‘We are borrowing money from HSBC to finance the construction and UBS has signed up to take a lease on a quarter of the building.’

Mr Boleat would not reveal the amount borrowed from HSBC. He also declined to say whether the terms of the JDC’s deal with UBS included a rent-free period for the company, but added that it was normal for most office lease deals to include such a provision.

Lee Henry, the managing director of the JDC, said he was delighted that UBS had signed a deal and that the move showed ‘long-term’ confidence in the Island’s finance industry.

However, a new petition has been launched online by Islander James Makin, who says that the community needs to voice its opinion about the plans.

Click here to view the petition. [/breakout]

So far it has gathered about 500 signatures, and was launched after a Facebook page he set up in opposition to the multi-million-pound plans was ‘liked’ by 1,000 people.

The online lobbying is also being supported by music festival organiser Warren Le Sueur, who says he is hoping to include a paper version of the petition at the gates of the Folklore music festival at Val de la Mare on 14 June so people can have their say.

It comes just days after former politician Sean Power announced he would be organising a human chain around the Esplanade car park on Sunday 7 June so that Islanders could demonstrate their opposition to the plans, which are being handled by the States-owned Jersey Development Company.

Mr Power said he had had a huge amount of feedback from Islanders who were against the project, with one stranger approaching him at a funeral to pass on a cheque for £1,000 to help publicise the peaceful protest he is organising.

Talking about his petition, Mr Makin (28), a project manager, said he hoped to get 10,000 signatures in the coming weeks.

‘The way we are going it will be unrecognisable in 50 years’ time,’ he said. ‘The building of this finance centre is the start of something bigger. It will just be development after development after development.’

James Makin has started an online petition against the finance centre plans

Mr Makin’s petition can be found through a Facebook page he has called ‘petition against the planned finance centre on the Esplanade, Jersey’.

The various moves against the project, which politicians and the JDC say is needed to create grade A office space to keep Jersey’s finance industry competitive in the coming years, are also being supported by Mr Le Sueur.

He is planning to use the Folklore music festival to show how Islanders feel about the finance centre plans.

Mr Le Sueur said: ‘The public of Jersey, as far as I believe, do not agree with the development of further office blocks in such a prime location.

‘The site could be a huge green space for the benefit of tourism rather than the finance industry. People need to feel proud about Jersey and a finance centre is not going to do that.

‘I’m willing to have the petition on the gate at Folklore because I think there are a lot of people who care about the potential desecration of this Island.’

Former Deputy Sean Power said he was expecting a large turnout for the demonstration at the Esplanade car park next month and that he had written to the States police to let them know a peaceful protest was due to take place.

‘I do not think it is just going to be one or two hundred people turning up,’ Mr Power said. ‘From the feedback I’m getting I think we are going to have quite an event.’

He added: ‘I hope people will grab this opportunity to voice their opinion and postpone their BBQ, have an early lunch and come off the beach early to join us for an hour at the Esplanade car park.’

An artist's impression of the finance centre

PUBLIC confidence in the States to deliver the Jersey International Finance Centre could hardly be any lower.

Apart from the odd politician and members of the Jersey Development Company, it is hard to find anyone who either thinks that it is needed or that it will provide the promised £50 million return.

Many would rather have a car park – or even just a park – than what is increasingly perceived as a vanity project championed by the hubristic few who have stuck their heads stubbornly in the sand.

After years of wholly predictable political in-fighting, indecision and several million pounds of expenditure on plans and professional fees – including the salaries of the quango at the heart of the saga which has long looked like a bloated gravy train – the project has come to symbolise much of what is wrong with the democratic process in Jersey.

Since 2008, the States has debated the finance centre five times, and each time Members have voted to continue with the project, their support based upon assurances that WEB or JDC could deliver a high-risk development project to budget at a time when the finance sector is contracting.

For too many outside the corridors of power, it is yet another example of those at the top not listening to Islanders, of their bulldozing through a vision of Jersey which is out of step with what huge numbers of people want.

Now they have moved the goalposts.

Today, the worst-kept secret in Jersey was officially announced – that UBS is to be the first signed-up tenant of the first building of six. The Swiss bank is taking just under a quarter of the space – 16,500 sq ft – in building number four opposite the Tourism building.

JDC says that is enough to start building. On 4 February last year, former Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf confirmed that construction would not start until 200,000 sq ft of space had been rented – until the risk had been sufficiently mitigated by signatures on contracts.

Where is Senator Ozouf now? Why is he and others not questioning this U-turn on behalf of the very concerned electors who they represent? What has happened to open and accountable government?

Meanwhile, Islanders are preparing a revolt. Plans for a ring-fence protest and a petition are gaining momentum and the chasm between elected and elector into which trust has fallen is growing ever wider.

This is not just a battle about a few office blocks – it is about the preservation of democracy.

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