The Boathouse is one of two major waterfront redevelopment opportunities being offered by Guernsey Ports as a public-private partnership.
The restaurant operated from the Pier for nearly 30 years, but it has sat empty since the lease held by the Christies Group came to an end at the end of the year.
Efforts it made to try to extend it proved unworkable, and the restaurant group said it could not secure a long enough lease to justify further investment.
Managing director Christophe Gaultier said he was now frustrated about the state of the site as visitors passed the key town location this summer.
‘It was absolutely amazing there, we were on the front line of tourism and welcoming all the people,’ he said.
‘We went through different projects and ideas for the harbour, we tried to extend our lease to reinvest in the Boathouse and we never got more than two or three years, or at the end was a year at a time, so we could never invest properly in the Boathouse.
‘January, February, March, April came, now it’s May, and the Boathouse is in an absolutely horrible way.
‘After the last Seafront Sunday, I got so many calls, people telling me, stopping me in the streets, telling me “why are you doing this?”
‘I said “guys, it’s nothing to do with us”. I want to make it clear that the Christies Group always wanted to invest and do something beautiful for the Boathouse, but it’s been left like that since December and they’re not doing anything.
‘I’m actually disappointed because I worked so hard to try to keep an old building running and nice, and the States never wanted to invest or give us a bigger lease for us to invest and make something gorgeous. Now they leave it like that in the height of the summer.
‘If they had given us another year or two years, it would have been around £50,000 rent a year.’
The public-private investment opportunities on the Boathouse site and the former Slaughterhouse building on Castle Emplacement would see public ownership retained with a long lease offered for investors.
Ports invited developers to submit formal expressions of interest on both sites with a deadline of 30 April, and due to a high number of enquiries held open mornings at both sites.
The project is now progressing to the next phase and the full tender process opens this week to the end of June. All interested parties are encouraged to submit responses through Savills.
‘The level of interest received demonstrates the clear appeal and potential of these prominent locations,’ said David Buddery, Guernsey Ports commercial development manager.
‘Through a public-private partnership, we are seeking to unlock investment that will support the long-term development of these sites and deliver wider benefits for the island.
‘It is anticipated that development partners will be appointed later this year.’