Former shore station for lighthouse sold
A FORMER lighthouse shore station at Fort Doyle has been sold for £535,000 by the States.
The property was purchased by TaiMing Ltd, which is registered at Beaucette Marina.
Marina staff said they did not wish to make a comment.
Its sale means that £200,000 that would have been spent on essential repairs and upgrades has been saved.
Deputy Charles Parkinson, States’ Trading Supervisory Board president, and chairman of its property sub-committee, said the private sale was deemed the best option under the circumstances.
‘When a property is deemed surplus to requirements by a committee, then normally it will be offered to other States committees,’ he said.
‘If none come forward with a clear use for it, then ordinarily the next step will be to look to sell it, and we have a number of options for that.
‘The sale was more complicated in this instance due to the lack of any clear legal right of access to the property or to provide services.
‘This may prove a problem for the States or a future owner, and there is particular uncertainty in this instance given that the current ownership of the adjoining property, in terms of who one might need to negotiate with, is not even clear.
‘If anyone was looking to borrow money to purchase it, then they would most likely have difficulty convincing a lender.
‘In light of this, Property Services deemed the sale route to be unlikely, and instead took the decision to invest more than £200,000 to return it to a suitable condition for renting out.
‘It was not ideal, because it would have represented a very long payback period.
‘Those funds would also have to have been prioritised above other projects from all committees, which to date had not been the case. Until the money could be allocated the property was going to stand empty and deteriorating.
‘We subsequently received an approach from a third party who were keen to acquire the property, and willing to take on the risk regarding access rights. Their offer also exceeded the independent, expert valuation of the property.’
Vale deputy Neil Inder said he was concerned about how the sale had been handled.
‘It should have gone out for open tender or auction or closed tender,’ he said.
‘But it was done privately. I understand they had an unsolicited expression of interest.’
Deputy Inder said he was concerned that they would never now know if the property had been sold for the right price.
‘There was a lack of transparency,’ he said.
‘It does not look right, so they shouldn’t have done it. It does not pass the independent observer test.’
The building was used historically as the shore station for the nearby Platte Fougere light.
Bought by the States in 1911, it had previously been rented by the former Housing Department.
It was handed over to Property Services in 2010, as it was no longer required, and has since been in temporary use as a store and a band practice room.
