Retail revolution: the government reveals a €24m FRIEND to transform retail areas
On Monday 11 September, Olivia Grégoire, the French Minister for small and medium-sized business, Trade and Craft Trades, and Christophe Béchu, the French Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, jointly unveiled the broad outlines of the “Programme to transform commercial areas“, an ambitious project with a budget of €24 million.
The aim of this initiative is to transform the face of twenty of the country’s 1,500 to 1,800 shopping areas at the entrances to towns and cities.
In France, 15% of retail areas are in decline
Shopping areas now cover almost 500 million square meters in France, making them of major economic, ecological and social importance.
Indeed, today, 15% of the 18,000 shopping areas are facing difficulties, mainly because their obsolete design makes them unattractive.
Shopping centers on the government’s radar
At the heart of this revolution are shopping malls, an omnipresent reality in the daily lives in France.
These havens of consumption represent both the face of the 20th century and an opportunity for the future, given their vast land holdings.
These areas represent a major challenge for the government.
- An ecological challenge: as heat sinks, shopping centers are synonymous with the artificialization of land, the formation of heat islands and the reduction of biodiversity.
- An architectural and landscaping challenge: Representative of what some observers describe as “ugly France“, these shopping centers are most often characterized by wide streets lined with advertising hoardings, buildings with facades often in sheet metal, and huge parking areas.
Behind the restoration of local commerce, the challenge of simplifying administrative procedures
The aim of this program is to build on initiatives already running, such as “Action Coeur de Ville” and Conquête du Commerce Rural“, aimed at restoring local shops for 50,000 French people, by reducing the need to travel by car.
“It’s not just a question of money. What’s holding things up today are the regulations, the delays, the authorization procedures,” points out Christophe Béchu. To facilitate administrative changes, the government has announced the creation of a “task force“.
The 3 objectives of the commercial zone transformation program.
This programme outlines the government’s new vision for French shopping areas, with a threefold objective:
- To transform these derelict areas into real places to live, while improving their integration into the urban landscape.
- Diversify their uses by integrating health, leisure and catering facilities into parks that are predominantly made up of fashion brands.
- Reduce the energy consumption of shopping areas by 40% by 2030.
Legal and technical support and a €24m budget
To be selected, the pilot areas must meet the following three conditions:
- The negative impact on the area as a whole must be significant,
- The area must be predominantly given over to commercial activities,
- The transformation project envisaged for the area must have reached a sufficiently advanced stage of development to be completed before 31 December 2027.
Project sponsors should contact their local prefectures, which will be responsible for carrying out an initial assessment of the applications.
Two waves of winners will be selected, in November 2023 and early 2024.
The winners of this AMI will be eligible for :
- tailor-made legal and technical support,
- a financial package of €24 million, including the possibility of a shortfall in commercial operations.
Eligible expenses include preliminary studies and the recruitment of a project manager responsible for the transformation.
The challenge is to adapt our transformations to the local context and expectations.
This complexity is to be tackled through a national and local network dedicated to the transformation of shopping areas. so :
- areas in urban areas can be densified and integrated into residential developments,
- those in decline will have the opportunity to be ‘renatured’ or used as a base for industrial activities, depending on their respective geographical locations.
An innovative initiative that holds great promise for commercial property
This initiative promises to fundamentally reshape our retail areas, adapting them to society’s changing consumption patterns while respecting the environment.
It’s a historic turning point that will put citizens at the heart of this retail revolution, a transition that deserves special attention from all players in the retail property sector.
Would you like to be supported in the transformation of your retail area by an objective, localised analysis of expectations?
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