“Ugly France”: 74 commercial areas selected to be transformed

Goodbye to “ugly France”? Seventy-four municipalities and intermunicipalities were selected as part of the plan to transform commercial zones at the entrance to the city, for a budget of 26 million euros, the government announced this Thursday, March 28. The detailed list of winners must be specified this Friday.

There are more than 1,500 peripheral shopping areas in France, which cover more than 500 million m2, and capture nearly 72% of French people's in-store spending. A model inherited from the 1960s, they are faced with a double environmental and social challenge, both a symbol of past urban sprawl and an opportunity for land in the midst of a housing crisis.

On an economic level, the aging of commercial buildings and competition from online commerce are also forcing real estate companies to rethink their model. “The challenge is to reinvent them for the next sixty years to make them living areas,” recalled the Minister for Business, Olivia Grégoire, during a telephone press briefing. A “dynamic, urban” commercial zone could, according to her, “be densified and make way for housing”, while a commercially abandoned zone could “be renatured or accommodate industrial activity when it is located in a sparsely populated area ".

The government announced in September the launch of its plan with 24 million euros. In three weeks, 112 applications were received while around fifty were expected, and 74 winners were selected. “We have both (...) metropolises as well as medium-sized towns and even small towns of 3,000 inhabitants,” added the minister, specifying that the initial envelope was increased to 26 million euros. A “governmental task force” composed in particular of agents attached to the Ministries of Economy and Ecological Transition will support each project.

Of the 74 winning commercial zones, 63 are at the reflection stage and will benefit from engineering aid of 75,000 euros, coupled with an equivalent additional envelope for 16 of them in order to “finance the conduct of projects”. The remaining eleven zones, “more mature” projects, will concentrate the majority of funding, namely 20 million euros, in particular to diversify activities, build housing or restore natural areas. “There is land potential,” declared Housing Minister Guillaume Kasbarian, who estimates the number of possible new housing units at 25,000.

A second phase of applications with 8 million euros will be launched in the second quarter.