'Massive loss' if hotel becomes private home

The possibility of a luxury hotel becoming a private home would be "a massive loss" to the island, according to the constable of St Martin, Karen Shenton Stone.

The owners of Château La Chaire are seeking permission to turn it into a residential property.

The Grade II listed hotel has been on the market since November but has yet to find a buyer.

An assessment as part of the planning application said "the continued operation of the business [was] economically unviable".

The first house on the site in Rozel was built in the late 19th Century by Victorian horticulturalist Samuel Curtis, who was looking for a location to grow exotic plants.

His gardens became a tourist attraction and some elements have remained, despite multiple changes in ownership and the building of the château on the footprint of his original house.

Despite it having been listed for sale, the 14-bedroom luxury country house hotel has remained open and is taking bookings as far ahead as October.

However, estate agent Harry Trower said the changing nature of tourism on the island made it "hard to run a hotel at a profit".

Jersey has seen a continued decline in the number of hotel beds, with the Mayfair, the Sunshine Hotel and The Revere among those to have closed their doors in recent years.

Trower also said the hotel, which sits in the north-east of the island, faces the challenge of being "away from all the main thoroughfares".

He said seeking planning permission to turn the hotel into a residential property was about "exploring all options" and the owners would be "more than happy to sell it as a hotel".

Shenton Stone said it would be "a massive loss, not just for St Martin, but for the whole island", if the building was no longer a hotel.

"We've lost so many restaurants and cafes, Bistro Frère, Granite Corner, The Navigator, we've lost all of those, and for this iconic building, and this hotel, the magnitude of losing this is quite enormous," she said.

The constable questioned whether something could be done to "save the hotel or the gardens" and if the island's high net-worth individuals might be able to help.

She said the hotel was in "the most beautiful location" and suggested restoring the gardens to attract green-fingered tourists could provide a future for the site.

Judith Quérée was involved in a campaign to restore the gardens at Château La Chaire a number of years ago.

"There's so much history when you walk up there, it's quite incredible," she said.

"These were some of the first gardens to have heated pipes that were installed by Samuel Curtis to try to grow things like pineapples and more exotic plants."

"All of the plants were brought in by ship and then hauled by ropes into the gardens because access isn't easy," she added.

She said "really interesting stories" like these were the reason they had previously tried to preserve the gardens.

While she said it would be "sad to see the hotel go", she felt it was a "sign of the times" and that a future as a residential property would be "OK" in her view.

Marcus Calvani, the co-chief executive of the Jersey Hospitality Association, said the site would need "considerable investment".

He said: "It probably needs some new rooms or suites added to it and therefore that gives a pretty finite valuation on the land if you're going to have it as a business.

"It's a magnificent site with a great bit of architecture.

"It's a prime site for a high-end boutique hotel and I think it could offer something very special to our visitors and those visitors that are willing to pay that premium for the site and the experience, so it would be a terrible loss."

An economic statement as part of the planning application details the challenges preventing continued use as a hotel:

"Château La Chaire has benefited from almost forty years of continuous stewardship, refurbishment and reinvestment" it says.

However it goes on to say that "structural changes within Jersey's tourism industry, increasing operating costs, changing visitor behaviour and the inherent limitations of operating a small luxury country house hotel have combined to make the continued operation of the business economically unviable".

The statement also says that discussions were held with a chain of luxury boutique hotels in the UK, but they concluded it "did not represent a commercially viable opportunity".

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