Bernay. The City wants to buy businesses to apply cheaper rents

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Validation of portage agreement with the Normandy Public Land Establishment (EPFN). This was the title of the 21^e item on the agenda of the municipal council of December 11, 2024 in Bernay (Eure).

More clearly, it was a question of deciding on buying a business – what will constitute a first during this mandate – through the intermediary (engineering, financial support) of the EPFN. Even more clearly, elected officials had to decide on the purchase of the commercial premises located at 15, rue Gaston-Folloppe, former antique shop which was also a store selling old books. The place even housed a Charrette museum upstairs, a few decades ago, created by Philippe Leroux, former editor-in-chief of L'Éveil Normand and great defender of Norman heritage. This premises has been unoccupied since the death of its last occupant.

Why such a decision?

Several reasons push elected officials to acquire this commercial wasteland (one of the many wastelands) in Bernay, which also has no less than forty in the city center.

First of all rue Gaston-Folloppewhere the ancient habitat has been preserved, still has a lot of charm and is considered a strategic location. It is part of an area where the Local Urban Plan (PLU) prohibits the opening of certain types of businesses (opticians, insurance agents, real estate agents), precisely in order to preserve a certain “character” for several streets in the center. -city.

Another reason and not the least, the price of the good. With a surface area of ​​75 square meters, its owners want it 95 000 €which is considered reasonable. As for the work that needs to be done there, the assembly with the EPFN allows them to start straight away.

A large majority of judicial liquidations are pronounced because traders can no longer cope with unbearable rent amounts.

What to do next with this space? Renting it to “certain types of businesses” (we have just mentioned this) but also “to a certain type” of merchants.

“We want to help certain young people, or not so young people, to settle in”indicate Mayor Marie-Lyne Vagner and her deputy in charge of economic development and trade, Louis Choain. Assistance with installation would consist of offering on the one hand a moderate rent“not like those that most city center owners practice,” denounces Louis Choain; on the other hand, “we would only make the new arrival pay 25% of the rent the first year, 50% the second, etc. » announces Marie-Lyne Vagner.

This initiative was unanimously welcomed by elected officials from all sidesthis Wednesday, December 11. Some mentioned other places, other wastelands, that it would be wise to acquire.

However, not all of them would be at the same price as the premises at 15, rue Gaston-Folloppe, so tempted that their owners wish to part with them. Because some, even if it may seem curious, some prefer to see their premises unoccupied rather than lowering the price of their rents or/and selling their goods. Why not concede a reduction in the amount of rent? Because some, owners of a large number of properties in the city center, occupied or not, do not want to give “bad examples” which would justify requests for discounts from certain occupants.

However, they would be legitimate to claim it, given the exorbitant price of certain rents (which sometimes reach €25 per square meter). This is dramatic, if we are to believe professionals in the sector.

“A large majority of judicial liquidations are pronounced because traders can no longer cope with unbearable rent amounts,” says in this regard Patrick Montenoise, vice-president of the commercial court.

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