June 22, 2022
Icade Promotion, Brownfields, and Aire Nouvelle have signed an agreement with ENGIE to acquire and redevelop 70 sites
Icade Promotion, Brownfields, and Aire Nouvelle—Equans France’s low-carbon real estate development and property management subsidiary—are partnering with the ENGIE Group to acquire 70 sites totaling 45 hectares of land, located throughout metropolitan France and intended to be redeveloped into housing, offices, business spaces, and retail after redevelopment. Through this large-scale project, the three partners—each contributing equally—aim to remediate contaminated sites, develop new neighborhoods, and restore biodiversity. This initiative will contribute to the Net Zero Land Take (ZAN) objective for the affected areas.
These conversions will be subject to a procedure known as the “third-party applicant” process, a mechanism established by the ALUR Act (2015) that allows a third party to take the place of the last industrial operator in order to ensure the decontamination and rehabilitation of the site.
The recognized expertise of the three partners (Icade Promotion, Brownfields, and Aire Nouvelle) in the rehabilitation of industrial sites and real estate development convinced ENGIE to entrust them with the redevelopment of this significant portfolio.
These synergies will be leveraged for the largest-scale redevelopment project of former industrial sites to date, with the goal of reimagining active uses that benefit cities and regions.
Icade Promotion, Brownfields, and Aire Nouvelle thus plan to develop mixed-use real estate projects on these sites, including housing, assisted living facilities (senior residences, co-living spaces, etc.), offices, as well as retail and commercial spaces. More than 200,000 m² of floor area—including over 100,000 m² of housing—will be developed by 2027, representing potential revenue of more than €500 million.
“With this project to transform commercial and industrial sites into mixed-use, inclusive, and green neighborhoods—notably through the renaturation of the space—Icade demonstrates its ability to rebuild the city within itself without increasing land development. The project’s environmental standards thus embody Icade’s ambition to build a city with a reduced carbon footprint, where it is pleasant to live, reside, and work,” explains Emmanuel Desmaizières, CEO of Icade Promotion.
“Since 2016, we have forged a close relationship with ENGIE, which identified Brownfields as a trusted partner and pioneer of the ‘third-party applicant’ mechanism, which enables ENGIE to accelerate the redevelopment of its vast portfolio of commercial sites that previously housed Gaz de France’s gas production operations, while ensuring that environmental liabilities are addressed. Following our first portfolio acquisition in 2019 with Vinci Immobilier, we are pleased with this new partnership with ENGIE. Together with Icade Promotion and Aire Nouvelle—with whom we share values and a drive to take action—we have the ideas and resources to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s cities,” emphasizes Patrick Viterbo, President of Brownfields.
“An unprecedented land and urban regeneration project in France, both in terms of its scale and its environmental ambition, the project embodies a new vision for urban development. Aire Nouvelle and its partners are convinced that the emergence of a sustainable city is not so much a process of construction as one of reconstruction and rehabilitation. We thank the ENGIE Group for renewing its trust in us following the Le Mans project. “Our teams are fully committed to tackling the challenges of the triple transition—energy, digital, and industrial,” concludes Marc Daumas, CEO of Aire Nouvelle, the low-carbon urban development and real estate development subsidiary of Equans France.
