22.06.2022
Icade Promotion, Brownfields and Aire Nouvelle sign a contract with ENGIE to acquire and convert 70 sites
Icade Promotion, Brownfields and Aire Nouvelle—the low-carbon infrastructure and property development subsidiary of EQUANS France—are partnering with the ENGIE Group to acquire 70 sites totalling 450,000 sq.m of land. Located throughout Metropolitan France, they are destined to be regenerated into housing, offices, businesses and shops. Through this large-scale transaction, the three equal partners are looking to remediate these sites in order to develop new neighbourhoods while restoring biodiversity. The transaction will help the local areas where the projects are located to achieve their “no net land take” objective.
These conversions will be carried out pursuant to the “interested third party” or “third party applicant” provision contained in the French ALUR law of 2015, whereby a third party may remediate a site instead of the last industrial operator to occupy it.
ENGIE chose these three partners, namely Icade Promotion, Brownfields and Aire Nouvelle, to convert this large portfolio due to their recognised expertise in the remediation of industrial sites and property development.
These synergies will be put to good use in the largest brownfield redevelopment project in France, with the goal of putting former industrial sites back into productive use for the benefit of cities and local communities.
As such, Icade Promotion, Brownfields and Aire Nouvelle plan to develop mixed-use projects on these sites. These will include housing, residential buildings with amenities such as assisted living facilities for seniors and co-living buildings, as well as offices, retail space and business premises. A total floor area of over 200,000 sq.m, including more than 100,000 sq.m of residential space, will be created by 2027. This represents potential revenue in excess of €500m.
“With this project to convert office and industrial sites into diverse, inclusive and green neighbourhoods, notably through their re-greening, Icade will showcase its ability to transform existing cities with no net land take. The project’s stringent environmental requirements clearly demonstrate Icade’s commitment to building cities with a reduced carbon footprint that are desirable places to live and work,” explained Emmanuel Desmaizières, CEO of Icade Promotion.
“Since 2016, we have forged a close relationship with ENGIE, which chose Brownfields, one of the first companies to avail itself of the ‘interested third party’ provision, as their partner of choice. This has allowed ENGIE to ramp up the conversion of its sites formerly used by Gaz de France for gas production while ensuring the environmental remediation of these sites. After acquiring an initial portfolio in 2019 with Vinci Immobilier, we are delighted about this new partnership with Engie. With Icade Promotion and Aire Nouvelle, whose values and determination we share, we have the ideas and resources to meet the challenges of the city of tomorrow,” declared Patrick Viterbo, Chairman of Brownfields.
“This unprecedented brownfield land and urban regeneration project in France, both in terms of its scale and environmental ambitions, is emblematic of a new way of looking at urban development. Aire Nouvelle and its partners are convinced that making cities sustainable is not so much a question of building new properties but one of converting and redeveloping existing ones. I would like to thank the ENGIE group for its desire to work with us again so soon after the Le Mans project. Our teams are fully committed to meeting the challenges of a triple transition: energy, digital and industrial,” concluded Marc Daumas, CEO of Aire Nouvelle, the low-carbon infrastructure and property development subsidiary of EQUANS France.