Julia Evans, who ran the Sailors’ Rest on the New North Quay, said that Ports of Jersey – the site owners – wanted to flatten the building to create a car park.
She said that Ports told her in April that they would not be renewing the lease. Her appeals for an extension have been rejected.
Ports of Jersey said that the occupant of the café ‘had been kept well-informed of future intentions for the area as part of both the short and long-term port development’ and the decision to demolish the building would allow them to ‘move forward and adapt the area to the changing requirements of its Port users’.
The Sailors’ Rest, which is situated next to the Maritime Museum, has now shut, having served customers for more than five decades.
Mrs Evans said: ‘I was told in April that the lease was being terminated in seven months’ time and when I asked them, at least three or four times, to extend the closing time, they just kept saying no. No one wants the café to close down and a lot of our customers are very upset about it.’
Mrs Evans went on to say that she and her family have had a strained working relationship with Ports.
‘They have always given us a hard time and the relationship was very difficult from the start. They increased the rent by 50 per cent two years ago, and have made our lives very difficult. So to be told that a business that you built and ran yourself for the best part of 20 years is to be knocked down and turned into parking spaces is incredibly frustrating.
‘We worked so hard to build up our clientèle and have won numerous awards for our food and service. For it to be taken away like this is devastating.’
Mrs Evans added that she felt she was forced to hand over the business to Ports without any compensation.
‘We were told we either had to tear it down, which would have cost us a fortune, or hand it over free of charge, which meant we had to leave it without receiving any compensation. It is heart-breaking.’
The café’s closure came at the same time that Ports announced its new Harbour Masterplan, which is intended to make the inner harbour at New North Quay a more leisure-related area. Additionally, Ports confirmed that the new plans were designed, in part, to deal with capacity issues currently being experienced by companies bringing freight into the Island on trailers.
