Since work began on Elizabeth Marina, the seafront promenades, Jardins de la Mer and the Waterfront Car Park in 1996 and 1997, the area has been transformed, with landmark developments such as the leisure and pool complex, the Radisson Blu hotel, Castle Quay and the International Finance Centre.
The pace of development shows no sign of slowing, with Jersey Development Company recently confirming its intention to build 500 new homes on land north of the Radisson, including Jardins de la Mer and the adjoining car park.
An outline planning application is expected later this year, and JDC also plans to develop two more blocks as part of the IFC complex. Later in the 2020s, the pool and leisure complex may be redeveloped when existing leases expire or reach break points in 2027 – although this phase depends on the future provision of leisure facilities for the Island, whether at Fort Regent or elsewhere.
The area of reclaimed land known as ‘West of Albert’ covers a total of 56 acres, with the first development being the Elizabeth Port ferry terminal in the late 1980s. A series of major projects then commenced in 1996…
Elizabeth Marina and promenades
Work began in 1996 to construct a new marina, which opened two years later and has 600 berths. The marina gate gives access to boat traffic for six hours during every tide cycle, and in recent years the facility has hosted the swimming leg for the Super League Triathlon events staged in Jersey.
Jardins de la Mer
The gardens, water feature and La Frégate Café opened in 1998, with views across St Aubin’s Bay and pedestrian access across the Esplanade from the south end of Gloucester Street.
Waterfront Car Park
Work on the two-level basement car park, with capacity for 500 cars, began in 1997 and was completed in 2000. The project also included Marina Gardens on the roof of the car park, which has hosted a number of public events including the start and finish of the Round-Island walk each June and live screenings of World Cup football matches in summer 2018.
Leisure and pool complex
Construction started in 2001 and was completed two years later. This included the AquaSplash pool, gym, Cineworld and hospitality venues like Liquid nightclub, KFC and Chicago Rock Café.
Victoria and Albert Housing
Construction of the accommodation blocks with distinctive ‘wave-style’ roofs began in 2001 and was completed in 2003. The development included 70 units for first-time buyers and 77 socially-rented apartments. In 2004 Prince Charles unveiled the Needle monument to commemorate his mother’s Golden Jubilee
Harbour Reach
A mixed-use development with 42 apartments, parking and commercial space, plus parking, which was developed between 2004 and 2006.
Radisson Blu Hotel
The 195-bedroom four-star hotel, originally named the Radisson SAS, was completed in 2007 after a two-year build. In 2008 the hotel was dubbed the ugliest building in the British Isles, winning the Carbuncle Cup voted for by readers of architecture website Building Design.
Liberty Wharf
Begun in 2006, the mixed-use development provided 110,000 sq ft of office space, a
shopping centre in the former abattoir
building, Mimosa nightclub and the Quayside restaurant. Work was completed in
2010, and also included a new bus station. The former bus station site at the Weighbridge was also redeveloped into a space
of 4,400 sq m where public events could be held.
Castle Quay
A total of 384 apartments were built between 2008 and 2011 in a series of blocks that also included commercial space on the ground floor and basement parking. Renowned chef Marco Pierre White was lined up to operate three restaurants on the site, but withdrew from the project in early 2012 before these projects started.
International Finance Centre
The first two buildings of the IFC complex, each with around 69,000 sq ft of office space, were completed in 2017 and 2018. The development also includes Trenton Square and ground-floor café.
Super League Triathlon
Triathlon events had never been seen as spectator-friendly, largely because they took so long and were stretched across such long courses. This changed with the introduction of Super League Triathlon, designed to be accessible to spectators and TV viewers, in the same way as Twenty20 cricket has attracted a new audience who weren’t enticed by the appeal of five-day test matches.
After the first SLT event in Australia in March 2017, discussions took place about bringing the event to Jersey, and the Island’s inaugural event took place just six months later. The short-course format fitted neatly into the Waterfront and adjacent marina, and was staged again in 2018 and 2019. Although there were some questions regarding the amount of government funding put into bringing the event to Jersey, the event has brought a large contingent of participants, support staff and spectators to the Island, the majority staying for at least a week, and achieved global TV coverage for the Island. As well as the world’s leading triathletes, the event has included opportunities for Islanders to take part in individual or corporate events, or the ‘Race for the Kids’ sponsored by RBC. The event has enjoyed mixed weather: in 2017 the weekend saw a sunny Saturday and rainy Sunday, while in 2019 a number of the races for amateurs were cancelled due to wind and rain.
Diamond Jubilee
Although the commemorative needle marking the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II was not unveiled until 2004, the 52nd year of her reign, everything was running to time in 2012. The Waterfront was the focal point for celebrations to mark Her Majesty’s 60 years on the throne. The Jardins de la Mer and the area behind the Radisson Blu were transformed into a huge festival complete with food stalls, live music, children’s rides and a giant screen showing the live concert at Fort Regent featuring Nerina Pallot and the Band of the Island of Jersey.
Despite a cloudy and cool start to the day, the weather improved with sunshine breaking through just in time for the start of the event. The celebrations came to a spectacular end with a 21-gun salute, followed by the lighting of the Jubilee beacon at Elizabeth Castle, the most southerly in the British Isles, at 10.21 pm by laser and, finally, a fireworks display from the castle that lasted almost ten minutes.
Hotel fails to please the eye of the beholder
In 2008 the Waterfront achieved an unwanted accolade when the Radisson SAS Waterfront Hotel – now the Radisson Blu – was named the ugliest building in the British Isles. The hotel building won the Carbuncle Cup 2008, voted for by readers of the architecture website Building Design.
The hotel was nominated by Jerseyman Alan Holmes and quickly became a front-runner for the award, attracting derogatory comments from far and wide.
Launched in 2006 and announced on the eve of the Stirling Prize for the best in contemporary British architecture, the Carbuncle Cup is the profession’s choice of least impressive building of the year. The Radisson was a clear winner with 29% of the votes; its nearest challenger, B-Central Apartments in Bournemouth by Trinity Architecture, gained 19%. London-based EPR Architects designed the Radisson building; managing director Stuart Lowther said he was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the result.
IFC protests
A proposed new finance centre for the Waterfront was passed by the States Assembly in 2008. The £330 million scheme included plans to lower Route de la Libération between Gloucester Street and Liberty Wharf and build a grid-style development of office blocks, shops, a car park and a winter garden over the road and the Esplanade car park.
The project stalled, initially hampered by the global recession, and in 2011 the plans were modified, with features such as the lowering of the road being shelved.
There was considerable opposition to the proposals, and around 2,000 Islanders were involved in a protest organised by the St Helier Waterfront Action Group in June 2015. It was hoped that a second protest in November 2015 would attract even more participants, but in the end only 700 people turned out.
Construction of the first IFC building started soon afterwards and was completed in 2017. IFC 1 building was sold in November 2018 for £43.7m with a net profit of £9.5m.
Environmental Concerns
Built entirely on reclaimed land, there have been some concerns about the potentially adverse environmental impact of such a project.
In 2008, former Senator Stuart Syvret objected to the process of using incinerator ash to reclaim the land citing environmental concerns and later questioned the implications of building in the area. Mr Syvret warned that the toxins in the ash could potentially harm the marine environment and the health of those working and living near the site. In a proposition calling for an official inquiry into the use of incinerator ash in reclamation landfill between approximately 1979 and 1995, he accused the States of ‘playing Russian roulette with the health of this community and our environment’.
The call for an enquiry was dismissed by a States vote of 37-13 in September 2008, with Members saying it would cost too much and little could be achieved by digging up history.
In November 2019, French construction company Groupe Legendre was fined £10,000 at the Magistrate’s Court as a result of a pollution incident during the construction of Horizon, a joint residential project with the Jersey Development Company. Silt was found to have escaped into Elizabeth Marina. The court heard that the incident resulted from the unexpected discovery of an old, unrecorded and irregularly-shaped sea wall during excavation work, which stopped the company from putting in measures which would have stopped the silt from escaping.
