Evreux: The Treuil group selected to rehabilitate the old Navarre foundry

Guy Lefrand, mayor ofEvreux, announced it on Monday June 24 at the end of the municipal council meeting. “We received eight applications, only two offers were complete” explained the mayor of the city. Following a first hearing of the two candidates, held on February 7, 2024, they were invited to present their final offers in view of the final jury for selecting the winners of the two batches, which was held on March 6.

It was following this hearing that it was unanimously decided to accept the offer of Treuil real estate group for lots 1 and 2, specifies the information note distributed at the end of the session.

Already in the place for several years, Gilles Treuil had acquired part of the old foundry when Raynald Huot was the owner, then a second part when the urban area acquired part of the site in May 2019. The business leader now has control over almost all of the land of the old foundry located between the streets of Domaine, des Marronniers and des Quinconces. To do what with it?

Real estate and third places

To respond to the agglomeration, Gilles Treuil surrounded himself with several partners. From the Vernon architect Bruno Creus (AACD architecture), Nicolas Couturieux (his artistic advisor) and the Bee Collective who got involved last summer by organizing a series of events near the bee building (A Summer at the Factory).

In the running to set up a third place in the Abeilles building, the collective has chosen to rely on the entrepreneur to manage a third place whose outlines were widely debated during the workshops organized in July 2023 on the site.

Managed by the collective, via a rental contract for the premises, this third place “will ensure permanent and varied activity”.

Completely rehabilitated by the winner, the Abeilles building should also house a restaurant which, “to ensure its sustainability”, will work in close collaboration with Les Jardins de Joséphine, also owned by Gilles Treuil.

As the tenant of the site, the Treuil group must sign a 99-year long lease with the City, the annual fee of which is set at a symbolic euro.

At the same time, GT Immobilier acquired land of approximately 1,900 square meters (this is the 2nd lot of the call for expressions of interest) at a price of €250,000 to build a dozen R + 1 houses that can accommodate around twenty new housing units along Avenue Aristide-Briand.

Demolition in the first half of 2024

The sales promises, the transfer of the land and the provision of the Abeilles building still need to be finalised, but Guy Lefrand has announced the start of demolition and decontamination work for the first half of 2024. Partly financed by the Public Land Establishment of Normandy (EPFN), this work will mark the start of the rehabilitation project for the former Navarre foundry.

A project deemed “flat” by the opposition

“Good news for Évreux as a whole”, the project presented Monday evening to elected officials “lacks audacity”, according to Timour Veyri (Évreux Ensemble). “It’s not very revolutionary. We would have liked a strong architectural gesture,” commented the elected official after viewing the sketches projected in the room. “Very summary” images which did not convince Olivier Vermeulin. Both from the point of view of the portage which he would have liked to be entirely carried out by the community and by the density of the housing planned on avenue Aristide-Briand. “People are going to be on top of each other,” fears the municipal councilor of the Évreux Ensemble group.

“The density is very low” Guy Lefrand tried to reassure, specifying that the choices had been made at the “request of the residents of the neighborhood” and following a long series of consultations. As for the decision of a public/private partnership, it was decided in the logic that prevailed for the development of the Tilly riding school. A solution that allows the community to remain the owner of the Abeilles building and to be able to recover it fully rehabilitated in… 99 years. All for a symbolic €1.

The project of the winner of the call for expressions of interest will be presented to the population, the

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