How is La Française involved in the Grand Paris project ?
The Grand Paris project is the largest European infrastructure project of the 21st century, designed to maintain the status of Paris as a world city.
To enhance the status of Paris, regional actors have started construction of the Grand Paris Express, a new, automated metro system in Greater Paris, representing an investment of 32 billion euros. In the coming ten years it will double the size of the existing metro nework. 200 km of metro lines and 68 new stations.
The project, along with the context of Brexit and the 2024 Olympic games will support the ongoing economic recovery and future growth prospects of the Paris region.
La Française, through our Chariman Xavier Lépine, has been a passionate ambassador of the Grand Paris project and the continuing development of the Paris region.
What steps have already been engaged?
At La Française, our experience in real estate investment and asset management in the Paris region dates back over 40 years. La Française is the number 1 collective real estate investment manager in France, with a portfolio of over 1 million square meters in the Greater Paris region and over 750 completed acquisitions of office and retail assets in Ile-de-France. With our background and deep roots in our home market, we are well positioned to be first movers when it comes to investment strategies tied to the Grand Paris project. La Française has created a new real estate operating company, broader in scope than our traditional investment funds, that we call “Foncière de Grand Paris”.
We have already defined our criteria and investment strategy:
o We want to invest in neighborhoods with strong value creation potential, due to proximity to future metro stations
o We want to take positions at an early stage, including the acquisition of properties or land to be developed or redeveloped
o Our strategy will include a diversified portfolio of housing, office, retail and industrial uses, with innovative financial strategies to bring our products to market
o We will continue to focus on sustainability, as La Française is committed to our focus on Strategically Aware Investing
La Française participated in the request for proposals organized by the Metropolitan authority for Greater Paris alongside our partners. In October 2017, we found out that we were awarded three sites around Greater Paris.These sites are both iconic of the Grand Paris and the good demonstration of our investment strategy. They are part of major urban devlopment plans and will be served by new metro lines.
Where do we go from here?
We continue to analyze additional sites related to the Grand Paris project, with a potential for large-scale and long-term urban developments. At the same time, La Française is continuing to look for investors that believe in our strategy, with the ambition to grow our new operating company in scale to reach 1 billion euros or more. What we offer is the possibility to invest in the neighborhoods that will benefit the most from the new infrastructure. This project is a real opportunity for La Française and our partners to contribute to their development and to reap the rewards in the long-term.