Plans for Home Bargains store on the Quayside site
QUAYSIDE could be set to finally be redeveloped, after a planning application to create a new Home Bargains store was submitted.
TJ Morris Ltd, which owns the UK discount homeware brand, has submitted the application, which is not yet live on the States of Guernsey planning website.
It will see a new 23,000 sq. ft Home Bargains store created on the western side of the North Side site, with an associated garden centre.
There will be 70 parking spaces on the eastern side of the site, with the car park accessed from North Side and Trafalgar Road, with an exit onto Longree.
Designed by local architects, Lovell Ozanne, the redevelopment will include a large roof-mounted solar array.
Once operational, the store will generate up to 100 jobs.
A TJM representative said the company was thrilled to develop its first store in Guernsey.
‘We believe that our proposals for the former Quayside site will be transformational, activating North Quay and providing a new, high-quality retail offer that is not currently available to the island’s residents,’ they said.
Quayside, which was also a homeware shop, shut down in 2015 as the existing 30,000 sq. ft building needed to be rebuilt, and the owners said it was not cost effective to shut the shop for the time it would take to redevelop it.
It saw 25 staff lose their jobs. Since then the building has been gutted and only external walls remain.
Adrian Norman of North Quay Holdings, which owns the site, said it was delighted that the site would meet the needs of Home Bargains.
‘Quayside closed in 2015 owing to viability issues with the old building and while there have been a number of occupiers making use of some ancillary parts of the site since, it has not been fully utilised in nearly a decade,’ he said.
‘This is despite repeated attempts to bring to fruition plans, including the grant of permission for a retail-led redevelopment in 2016, which has since lapsed.
‘We are confident that the agreement we have reached with TJ Morris will be the catalyst for the site’s long-awaited regeneration.’
An agreement has been reached to acquire the site, subject to planning approval.
The site is located in the Bridge Main Centre Inner Area in the Island Development Plan, where new retail is encouraged.
The plans also include the refurbishment of an existing granite building within the car park, which it is intended will be used for retail.
The Development & Planning Authority now needs to look over the plans.
Depending on the planning process, work could start on the new retail unit in spring 2024.
The construction and fit-out process will take approximately 12 months and generate about 75 construction-related jobs.
