A £29-MILLION investment into a former hotel on the edge of town will go ahead after the Planning Committee unanimously supported a scheme to create an apart-hotel complete with spa and wellness centre, mews cottages, waterside cabins, woodland chapel, garden lodge and botanical glasshouse.
The Millbrook Lodge Hotel, which sits in more than ten acres of land at the bottom of Waterworks Valley, will be a 77-bedroom art-themed venue, which includes ten units of self-catered accommodation and 19 serviced visitor apartments.
In contrast to the Strive hotel application, which the Planning Committee rejected by four votes to three, the group of politicians all supported the Millbrook application.
This was, in part, because the renovation of the existing main hotel building had been approved in 2021.
However, the pandemic and rising construction costs had put paid to owner Lance Trevellyan’s original plans so he returned to seek permission for a revised project, which introduced the ‘apart-hotel’ concept.
With Mr Trevellyan also owning CCA Galleries, the plan is to create a luxury hotel furnished with art produced locally and from internationally renowned artists.
The five waterside cabins will surround a pond in a meadow, while the glasshouse will include a studio for art and yoga classes.
Access into the hotel will be from Rue de Trachy, with vehicles exiting onto Chemin des Moulins in Waterworks Valley. The timber chapel will be a venue for weddings and other ceremonies.
Reacting to the approved application, Jersey Hospitality Association co-chief executive Marcus Calvani said: “Millbrook House Hotel is a beautiful planned development of an existing hotel.
“We highly commend the owner on this investment. Its new product mix fits with the demand that tourists are looking for nowadays, and will definitely be an added benefit to our Island. And it’s great to see an existing hotel coming back, as opposed to being demolished or turned into a private residence”
