Cannes (AFP)
Scarred by the abandonment of Europacity, a controversial mega-complex commercial and leisure complex that was to be established north of Paris, real estate developers are calling for more consultation in the future on this type of project, and for regulation. more flexible.
"No one wants a new setting disconnected from its environment, the needs of a territory and the expectations of citizens," said Olivier Bossard, general manager in charge of development at the global giant shopping centers Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), interviewed by AFP on the sidelines of the international market for commercial establishment and distribution (Mapic), held since Wednesday in Cannes.
URW, which operates the nearby Aéroville shopping center in Roissy, has lodged an appeal against the Europacity development zone, alongside several associations.
The mega-complex, carried by the property Ceetrus (Auchan group, owned by the Mulliez Family Association) and the Chinese conglomerate Wanda, no longer corresponded to "the aspirations of citizens," finally ruled last week the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, asking for an "alternative project" to Francis Rol-Tanguy, former director of the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop.
- "Co-development" -
"Today, we can no longer do commercial projects if we do not board all stakeholders: elected officials, administrative bodies, downtown merchants, associations, academics, local entrepreneurs, population ...", explains AFP Alexandre de Palmas, CEO of the Carmila property company, whose majority shareholder is the Carrefour group.
Each project must integrate the needs of all publics, with stores but also offices, hotels, housing, leisure, public spaces ... According to a player in the sector present in Mapic, the "weak point" of Europacity was precisely a lack of housing.
"Employment alone no longer justifies the project: we must take into account the quality of life and the preservation of the environment," adds Mr. Bossard, a supporter of "co-development of each project at scale local".
And it is necessary to put it as far upstream as possible, insists Mr. de Palmas: "five years to mount a project does not seem shocking to me if time is used wisely", as when it is necessary to create from scratch a highway ramp.
It also means taking into account public consultations, which was not necessarily done beforehand, to make compromises even to amend the project, even if it turns out to be "complicated for its coherence," he admits. Otherwise, "the return boomerang is terrible".
- "Single permit" -
"We have to get out of this French infernal cycle where we have both the Anglo-Saxon system with many consultations upstream and the Latin system with many possibilities for downstream appeal", nevertheless warns Gontran Thüring, delegate general of the National Council shopping centers (CNCC).
In particular, he points to the "administrative complexity" of setting up such projects in France, advocating "a single permit" to no longer have, as today, "juxtapose a series of applications for permits for trade, housing , from the office".
But for Mr. Bossard, the future of commercial real estate lies mainly in the rehabilitation of wasteland, vacant land, depollution of industrial areas ... "The public interest" will now be "to demonstrate on each project".
The judgment of Europacity also raises the question of the "gigantism of shopping centers", according to Christian Dubois, expert in distribution at the firm real estate consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield.
"Do they still have their place? Yes, but under certain conditions," he says: "if they compensate for other degraded and obsolete square meters (commercial), that will probably have to be converted into housing and local services."
© 2019 AFP