Idle times for the Idlerocks
BUILDING a new hotel with fewer than 100 rooms is not commercially viable, says Economic Development vice-president Jan Kuttelwascher.
The deputy visited London recently and met the owners of the Idlerocks site, who have been given permission to redevelop the area after the hotel was closed following a major fire in 2003.
Building work has not yet started.
Deputy Kuttelwascher said Economic Development was interested in the proposals from both the building trade and tourism aspects and the issue of the development itself was between the owners and the planning authorities.
But he did not think the hotel as approved would work.
'I think the problem is that the permission they have got is for 40-plus rooms, but that is not a commercially viable proposition,' he said.
'You don't build new hotels of 40 rooms.
'I was told you need at least 100 for a new hotel today.'
Planning permission was granted in 2014 for a 35-bedroom hotel on the Idlerocks site as well as a three-bedroom house on the lowest level.
