PROVIDED that it goes ahead, the Esplanade Quarter development at the Waterfront will change the face of St Helier.

Ideally, it will also create a district in which our principal industry, financial services, will be concentrated in state-of-the-art commercial accommodation capable of broadcasting the message that Jersey is at the cutting edge of the offshore finance world. That is the vision of the future, but the big question is this – can it be realised?

Former Waterfront Enterprise Board member Senator Jim Perchard, backed today by former WEB chairman Don Filleul, has called for period of reflection and assessment is required before the question can be answered with any satisfactory degree of certainty.

With the prospect of a seven-year project ahead of us and all the associated disruption to life in a key area of the Island, it is easy to understand what Senator Perchard and Mr Filleul are driving at. However, if the physical consequences of the work were the only issue, reaching a decision about whether the development should proceed would be a relatively simple matter.

Unfortunately, there are complicating factors – all of which support the wait-and-see approach that is now on the agenda. We know, for example, that Harcourt, the potential developers, have been given a deadline to post a £95 million bond as evidence that they have the resources to undertake the project.

We also know that work has stopped on the adjacent Liberty Wharf site because of a dispute between Harcourt and contractors. The uncertainty generated by these sets of circumstances can hardly be described as an ideal background for an undertaking that will cost at least £350 million to complete.

There is, meanwhile, the present economic landscape and the additional uncertainties that this presents. If Jersey is to sustain its prosperity and high standard of living, there must be a change in fortunes long before the target date for the completion of the Esplanade Quarter, but, at present, light at the end of the tunnel has yet to be detected.

More disturbingly – at least in the short term – there is talk of low demand for the commercial spaces under construction at Liberty Wharf, otherwise known as the old abattoir site. Some green shoots of recovery there would be a welcome sign that the adjacent, and far more ambitious and expensive scheme, stands a realistic chance of becoming the success that the Island must demand.