PONTAC House Hotel – believed to be the oldest hotel in Jersey – is to close this year after suffering a drop in trade during the pandemic.
Proposals have been put forward to turn the hotel in St Clement into a five-bedroom private home, and to create ten more houses, consisting of one five-bedroom, three four-bedroom, five three-bedroom and one two-bedroom units, by demolishing a number of structures around the site.
However, the hotel will remain open until the end of November.
The original Pontac House was built in 1830 as a private home and was converted into a hotel in 1850. It was particularly popular when the Jersey Eastern Railway was in operation between 1873 and 1929.
Pontac Bay, the business behind the proposed development, is working in conjunction with the hotel owner who has decided to leave the tourism industry owing to what he describes as ‘a lack of income and staff recruitment difficulties created by the pandemic’.
James Joseph, director of Pontac Bay, said: ‘The precedent for my projects is to restore, renovate and modernise existing or unused buildings by bringing them back to life for new users, while preserving the integrity of the original building and its surroundings. The Pontac House site will enable us to deliver our perception on restoration and allow new spaces to be created.’
Subject to planning approval, all the houses will have space for parking, bikes and their own amenity space.
The open grass area on the south side of Grande Route de la Côte will be retained and could be used for cultural events.
