Cyril Le Marquand House renovation costs (FOI)

​Request

Please advise how much has been spent on the renovation of Cyril le Marquand house.

Response

The old Cyril Le Marquand House has not been refurbished though was knocked down and has been rebuilt using a Development Partner having undertaken a rigorous tender. 

The new Government building is being procured under a Development Agreement (the ‘Agreement’) at a fixed price to the Government of Jersey, where design, construction, cost and programme risks rest with the developer and not the Government of Jersey. 

The Agreement provides a turnkey package which includes  Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment (FF&E) and places obligations on the developer to tender the individual packages and wherever possible use local suppliers. 

As the price to the Government of Jersey is fixed, the developers’ costs are commercially sensitive and under the terms of the Agreement are to be kept confidential by both parties, therefore Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

Article 33 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

The Government has employed a Technical Adviser, an IRS Lead (Information Required schedule), a Quantity Surveyor plus some Government of Jersey staff, and have undertaken some market research – to date the spend over the four years, including the Pre-Feasibility has amounted to £2,824,732.

Articles applied

Article 33   Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a)     it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b)     its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public interest test  

The release of the development costs could potentially disadvantage the developer and the Government of Jersey’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future process.    

This could also result in the Government of Jersey’s inability to secure best value for the taxpayer, and this will likely prejudice the Government as its bargaining power decreases.   

It is in the public interest to be made aware of any development costs in relation to the new Government building.  However, it is considered that the likely prejudices to the developer, the Government and the taxpayer should this information be released outweigh the argument that the release is in the public interest. ​