A NATIONAL art gallery will be at the heart of a new development that will breathe life into the Island Site and add to the overall revitalisation and rebirth of St Helier, according to the Waterfront Enterprise Board.

The development will also feature a transport hub and a Jersey visitors’ centre, and planners hope it will help to open up the town.

The board see the site – which has been largely vacant since the early 1990s – as a key part of the the new St Helier.

They have already started planning the future of the waterfront itself, the land currently being used as a car park off the Esplanade, the Weighbridge and the Harbour.

But the Island Site, which will be known as Liberation Place, will effectively be the gateway to the redeveloped waterfront from St Helier.

The site will include a combined transport centre, visitors’ centre, restaurants, art gallery, boutique hotel, accommodation, retail units and offices.