A building on six was built before 1985 and has not been pardoned since then

The Minister of the Interior and the development of the territory and President of the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Dominique Perben, Minister of transport, equipment, tourism and the sea, yesterday gave the kickoff of the modernization of the business district Parisian of the defence at the end of a Board of Directors of the Epad, which it was built and administers it.

The conclusion is clear, the first European business district, which houses some 2,500 headquarters, more than 3 million meters square offices, where to work every day, approximately 150,000 employees, but also 20,000 inhabitants in 600,000 square metres of housing and 200,000 square meters of shops, has aged. Or regenerate, this locomotive of the tertiary activity in Ile-de-France risk of quickly superseded by London, Frankfurt, Madrid and Barcelona. "71 Towers audit carried out by teams of Ernst & Young said the weaknesses of the current housing stock. (...) A building on six was built before 1985 and has not been pardoned since then. "In particular, 17 towers, totalling approximately 650,000 square metres, or 20 of the Park, are now potentially out of market," explains to the Ministry of the equipment. Out of this situation, the Government has therefore give its approval to the "stimulus for a new defence Plan, goal 2020" that had approved the Board of Directors of the Epad late last year ("Les Echos" on December 28, 2005).

Symbol of renewal

To be encouraged to renovate their buildings, owners will particularly allowed to increase the surface area in raising. Headquarters should win here by 2020 some 850,000 metres square of additional offices or renovated, 3 hectares of green spaces and a RER line, with the extension of Eole.

Specifically, "operations of demolition-reconstruction within the perimeter of defence will be exempt from approval within the limit of an extension of their surface of 40,000 square meters or 50 of the area of the original tower", explains to the Ministry of the equipment. "These operations will also exempt from the levy on offices, to the extent of the original surface;" Once the concerned buildings have already borne this tax in their construction, only the additional surfaces will be submitted. "In addition, the construction of new towers can be authorized in the amount of 300,000 square metres. Symbol of this renewal, an international architectural competition will be launched to make a "characterized by its architectural Audacity" and innovation, "and by its height", not necessarily specifies it in the Ministry, which will also build its headquarters, in which it will consolidate its central services. For the Socialist President of the Ile-de-France region Jean-Paul Huchon, this project developed without consultation with the region does not consider the need for geographical balance of its activities.

Also the Government, which shall publish this summer a decree extending the life of the Epad in its current form until 2010, launches a mission of reflection on the modalities for the transfer to an ad hoc structure and currently by the public establishment, headquarters and public facilities management functions at the origin of its deficit. Now taken deficit in charge to half by the Department of the Hauts-de-Seine and the communes of Courbevoie and Puteaux.