The plans, which also include over 1,000 residential units, have been revealed by the Jersey Development Company, which has partnered with landscape architects Gillespies for the ‘next chapter of work’ on St Helier’s Waterfront.
The partnership will see new parks and public places created alongside green and open spaces that the JDC says will ‘provide enhanced connectivity and more vibrancy’ for residents and visitors to St Helier.
The Waterfront site and plans to develop its adjoining areas have sparked controversy on a number of occasions during the past decade.
But the JDC’s managing director Lee Henry is hopeful that the latest plan to overhaul the Waterfront will be successful.
He said: ‘This will be a real step change for St Helier’s important Waterfront. Following last year’s adoption of the Southwest St Helier Planning Framework as Supplementary Planning Guidance by the Environment Minister, we jointly launched a design competition in order
to appoint a highly motivated and creative team to develop a landscape-led, visionary framework for some of the key
opportunity sites within the south-west St Helier area.
‘We’re delighted to have Gillespies as our design partner for the next chapter of work on St Helier’s Waterfront. Gillespies’ proposals focus on landscaping and connectivity of this new area of St Helier which resonates with the feedback received from the 2019 public consultation. The selection panel was unanimous in its decision and JDC is excited to be advancing proposals and remains committed to delivering a waterfront that will be landscape led, environmentally focused and available for all members of the community to enjoy.’
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft said the partnership and new plans provided an opportunity to create more green spaces in the Island’s capital.
He said: I am delighted to know that St Helier is going to benefit from the experience, skills and advice of a major firm of landscape architects. The Jersey Development Company has already shown its commitment to including high-quality public spaces in its developments, notably in the recently completed Trenton Square, and we now have the opportunity to see much more green space for people to enjoy in this part of St Helier.
‘I am confident that this busy part of town will become not only more attractive as a result of this appointment but it will also help our visitors and local residents to move around the Waterfront more easily.’
In addition to the key elements of the designs, Gillespies’ proposals also include a seaside amphitheatre, a boardwalk, a new gym and new landscaped gardens at Jardins de la Mer featuring an underground public car park.
Gillespies partner Stephen Richards said: ‘Following a comprehensive selection process, the urban design and landscape team at Gillespies are thrilled to have been chosen to partner with JDC in the delivery of a bold vision for the future of St Helier’s Waterfront. Our landscape-led proposals will sensitively transform the existing waterfront into a mixed-use quarter set within a green framework of beautiful new squares, courtyards, roof terraces, green corridors and parklands.
‘We are particularly looking forward to engaging with the communities of St Helier over the coming months to help shape these exciting proposals.’
The JDC hopes that an outline planning application will be submitted within six to 12 months following a public consultation and feasibility studies which are due to be undertaken over the next few months. It is expected that the development profits will pay for all the infrastructure.
The project is estimated to have an overall timeframe of 12 years and that the AquaSplash and gym will remain in the same location, albeit in a ‘revamped building’. Depending on the extent of the new public underground car park, La Frégate ‘would remain or be replaced’.
The controversial history of the Waterfront
Development of the Waterfront area has been mired in controversy for more than a decade.
In 2008, Irish firm Harcourt – who had been handed an exclusivity deal to develop the Waterfront – were taken to court in Las Vegas and Dublin in two separate cases, one of which related to the St Helier plans. Later that year, a proposition was lodged to set up the Jersey Development Company, which effectively replaced the Waterfront Enterprise Board, which had been responsible for building the cinema and swimming pool complex on the Waterfront.
In the same year, the completion of the Radisson Blu Hotel drew criticism and mockery with many commenting on its design. EPR Architects – who were responsible for the development – were awarded the Carbuncle Cup, which is given to the project deemed by magazine Building Design to be the ugliest built across the British Isles each year.
And further controversy arose after plans were unveiled to build up to six high-grade office blocks on the site of the Esplanade car park. When building work began on the first of the six blocks in 2015, thousands of Islanders joined a ring of defiance to protest against the development amid fears that the States were taking unnecessary risks with taxpayers’ money by allowing the government-owned Jersey Development Company to press ahead with the scheme.
Then-Treasury Minster Alan Maclean moved to reassure Islanders that the JDC had secured bank loans to fund the building and that no public money was at risk. However, this did not stop hundreds more Islanders protesting in November that year by marching from the Esplanade to the States Chamber with some calling on then-Chief Minister Ian Gorst to resign as a result of the rapidly developing crisis.
Since then, two of the six blocks have been completed with planning permission approved for the third structure.
Earlier this year, Mr Henry said that plans were being developed for the site north of the Radisson Blu Hotel. Tentative discussions suggested that 500 new homes would be built on the site which includes Jardins de la Mer and the adjoining car park.
A 2019 report into the Island’s future housing requirements found that almost 7,000 additional homes would be needed by 2030.
JDC managing director Lee Henry said at the time that the project followed the publication of the Southwest St Helier Planning Framework in 2019, with an outline planning application due to be lodged by the end of this year, and detailed designs next year.
