FEATURE
ST JAMES’ PLACE Nestled next to Guernsey’s Royal Court building and the iconic St James venue, this new office building is in the very heart of St Peter Port. With spectacular sea views from the higher levels, it is certainly making the most of its location. But that location poses its own challenges when it comes to the construction. 36
Guernsey Property and Construction
When construction is complete on the St James’ Place office building, it will offer around 18,500 sq.ft. of Grade A office space in the centre of Town. But Steve Marie, managing director of developer Comprop, admits that squeezing that space out of the site was a challenge: “It’s a very tricky site so it took some work and real planning to get that efficiency from it. We also had the issue when we were looking at it that we didn’t know what the ground conditions were going to be like and whether there would be issues there, but luckily it’s worked out really well.” While the ground conditions were in its favour, main contractor Rihoy & Son has had plenty of other issues to deal with on the site. Managing director, Gavin Rihoy, said it all
comes down to location: “We are working on a postage stamp site with roads on either side. We’ve got the use of the road that runs between St James and the Royal Court for the duration of the contract which helps a lot. “To make the site workable, the first thing we did was build a big concrete box which will eventually be the carpark part of the complex. That means that we do have space to use as a laydown area during the rest of the project. It’s also about being organised. We have to think through the logistics of what we need and ensure that materials are coming in sequentially as and when we need them.”
