While some United Arab Emirates developers backed out of participating at Cityscape Dubai this year, other Western players chose to attend. La Défense is a 3.5 million square meter business district in western Paris, developed by the Établissement Public pour l'Aménagement de la Région de la Defense (EPAD), the French state-backed development authority. According to Philippe Chaix, general manager of EPAD, "the aim is to show the project to investors and to create links for the future, not for now."
La Défense has generated more than 150,000 jobs so far and is considered a major economic driver in Paris and the region. La Défense currently has 3 million square meters of office space with an occupancy rate of 96 percent. Looking forward, Chaix explains that EPAD has new plans. In the next 10 years, La Défense will expand by 1.5 million square meters, building a 'cluster in the city' for around 400,000 people, which includes a university, a school, as well as a cemetery and a prison. Moreover, EPAD has launched, since 2006, a 9-year development plan, aiming to regenerate outdated skyscrapers, construct new buildings and improve the balance between residential housing and offices, as well as improve transportation. All the new developments will take place under the umbrella of sustainable development, explains Chaix.
"The sustainable development initiative starts by obliging promoters to construct buildings that respect American and British norms of sustainable development," he says. He adds that towers more than 30 years old are considered depleted, therefore some will be renovated and some demolished and reconstructed. Chaix also explains that construction in La Défense was delayed nine months due to the retreat of some investors in the wake of the global financial crisis. However, they are currently re-entering the market and Chaix expects to sign good deals from now until the end of the year.
Chaix adds that his participation at Cityscape Dubai is the first, but will not be the last. "We will come back next year because our policy is like flowers -- we plant the seeds and we water them, and we know they will not grow in only one year," he adds.
La Defense
Launched: 1958
Size: 3.5 million square meters
Type: Business district including residential and office space. Generated 150,000 jobs so far and homes for 20,000 residents
Offices: 3 million square meters of office space, 9 percent of the total office space in the Paris region
Origin of investors: France, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Kuwait, Qatar, Canada, Russia and Singapore
By Nada Nohra
© Executive 2009
