Lot-et-Garonne: An ambitious reconversion project for the Manufacture des tabacs de Tonneins -
20 Minutes
Located in the heart of downtown Tonneins, the huge Tobacco Factory covers 50,000 m2.
An ambitious reconversion project with 200 jobs at stake could confirm the attractiveness of the town.
Mayor Dante Rinaudo also hopes to benefit from the interest in small and medium-sized towns, which has been felt since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.
A true “city within the city”, with a railway line that leads inside… The huge Tobacco Factory in Tonneins (Lot-et-Garonne), a magnificent Napoleonic building built during the time of the Tobacco Control Board, exceptionally opened its doors on Wednesday.
The objective of the mayor of the city, Dante Rinaudo (DVD), is to advance a reconversion project of this site located in the heart of the city center, with future partners, in particular the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Val-de -Garonne agglomeration and the Public Land Establishment (EPF).
Closed for about twenty years, the #Tonneins factory (Lot-et-Garonne) will be renovated to accommodate in particular around twenty companies in partnership with the #NouvelleAquitaine region pic.twitter.com/wszsHIGJGj
- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) March 17, 2021
The project still needs to be clarified.
But it would consist, in broad outline, in creating on this wasteland of 50,000 m2, a business park, with buildings of several sizes for about twenty craft, industrial and / or service companies, and 200 jobs at the key, by 2025. A culinary center, as well as a tourist center, are also envisaged.
The architectural and environmental aspect is not forgotten.
"The idea would be to keep only the heritage part and to demolish the new part to develop instead a park of 9,200 m2", specifies Dante Rinaudo.
In short, a real green lung, in a former tobacco factory, you had to think about it.
"An industrial wasteland which represents the history of tobacco in the region"
The reconversion project dates back to ten years.
And if nothing has been done yet, elected officials are finally hoping for a realization in the coming months.
“We have project leaders, and we are going to launch project management assistance (AMO) to speed up the process,” insists the mayor of Tonneins, who works in conjunction with the current owner, Imperial Brands / Seita.
The Manufacture des Tabacs de Tonneins covers approximately 50,000 m2 - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes
"It is an industrial wasteland which represents the history of tobacco in the region," underlines the PS president of the region Alain Rousset.
It is a remarkable building, and a huge playground for the territory.
But considerable work is to be expected.
"We will first have to acquire, perhaps clean up, and think about an economic model, and the activities that we want to install there," lists the president of the region.
Install there "trades that the" big city "no longer wants"
The boss of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, he would see well, him, "of the training, perhaps in the trades of the accompaniment of the elderly.
"And industrial employment, too," as in boilermaking or around thermal renovation.
"" Cities like Marmande, Tonneins, can attract job seekers, young people with jobs that the "big city" will no longer offer ", anticipates Alain Rousset.
If the president of the region warns Dante Rinaudo that he will certainly not complete the project in just four years, he nevertheless urges him to start it quickly, to benefit from the recovery plan which runs over the period 2021-2022.
Tonneins, like other towns in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in rural areas, could thus benefit from the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, to materialize certain projects and increase its attractiveness.
"Metropolization meets its limits"
"This kind of project resonates completely with the Covid-19 crisis", confirms the mayor of the town of barely 10,000 inhabitants.
And the councilor is convinced that his city, well located 45 minutes from Agen and 1h30 from Bordeaux, can emerge strengthened from the pandemic.
“We see that metropolitanization is meeting its limits, especially in human terms, and our rural territories show potential for recreating life through innovative projects,” he analyzes.
We already feel an attraction: There are more and more real estate sales, more and more people arriving from outside, especially from metropolitan areas, even Parisians.
There are retirees of course, but also people who want to change their life.
This is why we need to benefit from commercial and industrial zones, where jobs are created, to attract these people even more.
"
K'Ryole, a Parisian start-up specializing in city center delivery by electric trailer, has just made the choice to set up its new production site in Tonneins.
"Production will start in May, and will gradually ramp up" explains Patrick Noaille, industrial director of K'Ryole.
Some 60 people will be hired by 2022.
From left to right, Patrick Noaille, industrial director K'Ryole, Dante Rinaudo, mayor of Tonneins, and Alain Rousset, president of Nouvelle-Aquitaine - Mickaël Bosredon / 20Minutes
"The pandemic could accentuate a movement of departure from certain large cities"
"I totally believe in a new attraction for our territories," confirms Alain Rousset.
It is a movement that has started, even if we cannot yet fully quantify it.
But in the territories, you stay there if you have both training, employment, and services.
All the action of the region is therefore to be able to maintain our factories in the countryside, and to develop new sectors.
"
“The pandemic could accentuate a movement of departure from certain large cities towards the territories of medium-sized cities, analyzes for his part Olivier Bouba-Olga, university professor, head of the studies and prospective service in the New Aquitaine region.
We have testimonials from the rural world, we have real estate agencies who tell us that they have a lot of requests, but these are only shivers, we do not yet have consolidated data.
"
Telecommuting could be a game-changer
The specialist of the territories, however, believes that it is necessary "to relativize the phenomenon", quite simply "because it is necessary to leave the idea that only the metropolises are dynamic.
"Even before the crisis, we had large dynamic cities, like Bordeaux, but others which were less so, and there were also small and medium-sized towns which were already very attractive.
And this desire to live elsewhere is very true for Paris, it is less the case in the big provincial towns.
I believe that what can really benefit rural areas, where land is cheaper, will be the way teleworking evolves: from three days a week, it changes the situation, and it is no longer a problem of live in the countryside.
"
Mobility will still have to be there to get out of the all-car.
In Tonneins, a multimodal hub project should make it possible to further promote the train and the bus, by 2022. “We need transport, that's obvious, insists Alain Rousset, which supposes a productivity effort by the SNCF to make the trains run more ”.
Not sure, on the other hand, that she agrees to send it again to the factory, as was the case during the golden age of the factory.
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