2023-07-21 17:00:09
Construction of a new tower in the La Défense business district, in Courbevoie, on March 28, 2023. ROMUALD MEIGNEUX / SIPA
And, suddenly, the emblematic district, symbol of modernity, beacon of triumphant capitalism, wavered in its turn. The Covid-19 had been there, with its corollary, teleworking, once a pet peeve of department heads, which has become the panacea for corporate real estate managers. The climate crisis was accelerating. The slightest carbon emission was tracked. The celebratory years of concrete, glass and steel were fading away. We had to adapt, and quickly.
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If there were to remain only one, it would be him, the business district of La Défense, west of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine, investors have nevertheless always assured, eyes on the figures for 2021 and 2022. public institution Paris La Defense. And the solutions of the past (freeing up square meters, calling on the state to help) were no longer possible.
Let us recognize the world of finance for its ability to mobilize when its assets are threatened. At the end of December 2022, a good part of the tertiary real estate ecosystem in La Défense (developers, real estate companies, architects, urban planners) found themselves in an amphitheater and gave themselves six months to formulate proposals to be implemented quickly to save their vertical forest.
Two-speed market
“We are reaching a phase of development where there is no more land, and perhaps too many offices, given market conditions”, began Pierre-Yves Guice, when he was preparing to close, at the end of June, the Estates General of the transformation of the towers. At the start of 2023, the vacancy rate rose to 15% for the district. Admittedly, the almost simultaneous delivery of brand new towers has increased the available floor space. But a two-speed tertiary market is starting to take hold: on the one hand, the latest or deeply restructured floors, on the other, aging buildings. The public establishment estimates that one million square meters, or a quarter of the park, present a risk of technical and energy obsolescence.
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Many ideas arose during the workshops which brought together nearly 800 actors, assure the organizers. But the choice was made to retain only ten measures which reason in constant law; ask for an exceptional law or millions of euros that are no longer in tune with the times. And, above all, a moral contract was laid down: renovation, and not demolition, would henceforth be the norm, renewable energies the priority, just like the “mixed use”which means to develop something other than desktop.
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