• Amazon wanted to build a warehouse of 185,000 m2 in the town of Montbert.

  • The community of communes, which vigorously defended the project, prefers to give up in view of the difficulties of the project.

Surprise announcement this Monday morning.

The community of communes of Grand-Lieu informs that it officially renounces the project to set up a major Amazon logistics base in the commune of Montbert, south of Nantes.

Negotiations between the two parties are definitively interrupted.

The American giant has been informed of this decision.

“Despite the interest of the project and, in particular, a significant job creation, the elected community representatives have, over time, noted the difficulties of the project and particularly the accumulation of technical and legal constraints greatly shifting the initial schedule.

At best, the logistics center could not have emerged from the ground until 2025, a date very far from the initial project, which weakened it for all the players ”, explains the community of municipalities of Grand-Lieu, which negotiated the arrival of Amazon for more than a year.

Strong opposition

The site chosen was that of the former psychiatric hospital of Montbert, now fallow. The e-commerce giant wanted to install an automated logistics platform of 185,000 m2 there, one of its largest in France. The project was the subject of strong opposition over environmental conditions, precarious jobs and Amazon's business model. Several events by a collective of associations and elected officials, united around the slogan “No Amazon in my area”, have been organized over the past year.

Johan Boblin, president of the community of communes of Grand-Lieu, ardently defended the project.

For him, abandonment is today a "difficult decision, but it is above all a decision of wisdom".

“Initiated, in the midst of the Covid crisis, the Amazon project naturally appeared positive to us.

The 185,000 m2 warehouse allowing intelligent reconversion of the former hospital site, without artificialization of the soil, with the creation of 1,000 jobs in perspective.

Despite everything, we considered that the conditions of the case had fundamentally changed.

"

The community is now reorienting itself towards "new requests for the establishment of regional and national companies".

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  • Society

  • Amazon

  • Logistics

  • Nantes