JERSEY War Tunnels is on the market for an asking price in excess of £5.5 million.
Daisy Hill Real Estates Ltd, which has owned the attraction for more than 60 years, is seeking a buyer for the site and the collection of Occupation artefacts, which include an enigma machine [a cipher device used by the Germans in the Second World War] and a Kübelwagen, a light multi-purpose German military vehicle.
The owners say there will be no changes in day-to-day operations while it seeks a buyer.
The team of nine permanent employees and 21 seasonal staff have been told of the plans, and DHRE has said that there will be no redundancies while the site is on the market, as it expects to welcome thousands of visitors over the coming months.
Richard Barnes, director of DHRE, described the Jersey War Tunnels as the Island’s “number-one tourist attraction and curator of the Island’s Occupation story”.
“It is a unique attraction with scope for even greater school- and adult-targeted educational content. The site certainly has potential for further growth for diversification with extensive grounds,” Mr Barnes said.
A press release issued by DHRE said it was primarily a property investment business and had decided to focus exclusively on commercial real-estate investments. It said it believed it was the right time to hand the site onto new owners but said it had no plans to close the attraction if a buyer could not be found.
The JWT site comprises the 1,000-metre underground tunnel complex which houses the exhibition, a visitor centre and a garden of reflection on the 29.5-acre site in the heart of St Lawrence. It welcomed 75,000 visitors in 2023.
Following the end of the Occupation, the tunnels were opened to the public by the States of Jersey but, in 1960, following a Royal Court ruling, DHRE acquired the complex because they owned the land above.
The site boundaries have not changed since 1970, when the company acquired a further piece of land from the National Trust for Jersey. JWT is the only trading business within Daisy Hill’s portfolio of investments.
