Jérôme Chabert

Toulon town centre: a comprehensive strategy for the long term

Jérôme Chabert, Managing Director of Var Aménagement Développement

 

The public-private territorial development company Var Aménagement Développement (VAD) has been working since 2002 on the historic centre of Toulon. VAD’s president, Hélène Audibert, is an elected official of Var County, and deputy-mayor for urban strategy and town-centre renewal, reporting to the Mayor, Hubert Falco. In 2017, VAD obtained a third concession, for a 10-year period, increasing the total sector from 30 to 60 hectares.

What is VAD’s role in the Toulon town centre and what are the results?

In 2002, the City of Toulon delegated the implementation of its urban renewal and development strategy for the historic town centre to VAD. We acquired 80,000 sq. m of floor space, which enabled us to renovate or restructure 3,800 housing units, out of 6,000 in the historic centre. At the same time, we did a lot of work to redevelop the public spaces in the area, as part of a comprehensive urban requalification project. This was done with the help of the national agencies for housing (ANAH) and urban development (ANRU), and funding from the City, Greater Toulon, the County and the Region.

Toulon is now clearly reaping the benefits of this joint effort. We have attracted investors, and retail space vacancy rates have declined. Nearly one year ago, via a real estate company we established with a private investor and the public financial institution Caisse des Dépôts, we were able to gather some 30 retail businesses in the art and home decoration sector in Rue des Arts and the renovated Place de l’Equerre.

But it takes time to revitalise a town centre; perhaps as much as 25 years, even in a city like ours, where political stability has certainly facilitated the design and implementation of a long-term strategy. It can’t all be done in a single term of office.

That’s certainly reflected in VAD’s mandate, running from 2002 to 2027. What will you be doing in terms of retail activities?

Our new concession contract turns its focus to economic and retail development. That is why we have doubled our scope to include the area around the station — where we will be creating office and education space — the ports — a very attractive feature, with ferries and cruise ships bringing in large numbers of tourists and people travelling to Corsica — and the Mayol shopping centre on the edge of the old town. Our retail plan is not designed separately from our urban and economic development policy: they form a whole, to attract investors, including retailers.

As concerns retail development, we were assisted by CBRE—Convergences in defining our strategy. We selected four sites capable of accommodating medium-size, attractive retailers for the town centre. We are currently studying the operational feasibility of these projects. 

You’ve also set up a team focused on economic development and retail activities.

VAD will handle all requests from investors interested in our town centre but, in addition to our own resources, we get support from the City’s Commerce Department. Efficiency depends on pooling, federating and coordinating our efforts. A team of four people, including a town-centre manager, will work with external service providers to conduct studies or handle specific leasing mandates. With the help of CBRE—Convergences, we will also define the most pertinent indicators to monitor the results of our retail policy in action.