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Guillaume Laurens
Published on
Nov 5 2024 at 8:30 p.m
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The works of the Occitanie Tour will be able to start.
The State Council has in fact just rejected, Tuesday November 5, 2024, the cassation appeal opponents of the project: there is therefore no longer any legal obstacle to the creation of the immense building planned in the Matabiau district has Toulouse. Seven years after coming out of the hat to everyone's surprise, the 150 meter skyscraper — and its promoter — will be able to emerge from the shadows.
The last chance resort evacuated
Last February, the Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal had already confirmed the legality of the building permit for the Occitanie Tower — issued five years earlier by the mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc to the company Compagnie de Phalsbourg -, and rejected the opponents of this extraordinary project, who demanded its cancellation.
The latter, however, filed an appeal before the Council of State in April: the last chance resort before the highest French administrative court, which only judges the application of the law, not the merits of the cases.
What were the opponents' arguments?
“We believe that this deliberation of the Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal includes irregularities in the form and is poorly based on nine points”, had explained to Toulouse News Richard Mebaoudjspokesperson for “No to the skyscraper of Toulouse”, one of the applicant associations, alongside “Friends of the Earth Midi-Pyrénées”, “France Nature Environnement Occitanie Pyrénées”, “Le Droit au Logement 31” , as well as three local residents.
Examined Thursday October 10, the file was put under advisement. Unsurprisingly, the Council of State rejected the opponents' final appeal. In this sense it follows the conclusions of the public rapporteur who had estimated during the hearing that the building permit for the Tour Occitanie was regular.
What will be in the Tour Occitanie, the first skyscraper in Toulouse?
Supported by the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, a private developer, the Occitanie Tower was announced in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) during MIPIM, the largest real estate fair in the world, at the beginning of 2017. This project consists of erecting next to the Matabiau station, on SNCF land, a very high building. THE first skyscraper from Toulouse.
And “city building of approximately 30,000 m²”, according to the terms of the developer himself, designed by the architects Daniel Libeskind (at the origin of the reconstruction of the World Trade Center in New York) and Kardham Cardete Huet Architecture, which would include according to the Company on 38 levelssome 11,000 m² of offices, more than 100 housing units, and 4 star hotel, 2,000 m² of shops and 1,500 m² of SNCF premises, without forgetting a restaurant et a panoramic bar at the top of the tower.
The Phalsbourg Company was preparing
Since the spring, the Phalsbourg Company had been preparing for this schedule. Speaking during a Toulouse evening dedicated to town planning at the end of April 2024, Eric Paillot, vice-president of the Compagnie de Phalsbourgdisplayed his serenity at the time. He said this:
“We have been managing different procedures for five years. We are slowly reaching the end of the appeals. This story should come to an end in September and October of this year 2024, which could allow the work to start.”
“A project that remains very timely”
The same evening, he explained to the audience present why despite the legal tunnel, the Phalsbourg Company maintained its course:
“This project, very timely five years ago, is even more timely today. Real estate has progressed in Toulouse. The metropolis has real ambition and the mayor of Toulouse has demonstrated real political courage (in relation to our project). In addition, Matabiau remains a marvel of location.”
The main axes of the project confirmed
It also confirmed the main axes of the project: a building 150 meters high, the creation of a “city building” of approximately 35,000 m² on 38 levels including in particular a panoramic restaurant bar at the top of the tower, housing “at height to take advantage of the magnificent view”, offices and businesses at the base of the tower, “which will meet the needs of the tower, but also of the neighborhood”.
Real estate “among the most expensive in Toulouse”
On financial issues, the project leader estimated the price per m2 in the Tour d'Occitanie, between 10 and 12,000 euros per m2, without really specifying the cost of the construction of the future building. He detailed:
“We will be part of the most expensive real estate in Toulouse. We will be in the range of 10 – 12,000 euros per m². It will be an operation where real estate will be expensive because the charges will be heavy, with regulations for this type of building which generate high charges.”
For luxury companies?
He nevertheless specified:
“We never launched marketing around the project.” Regarding the future demand for this type of housing, he wanted to be confident and revealed a possible strategy.
“Will there be 120 households in Toulouse to buy at this price (10 to 12,000 euros per m2)? Probably not… But we have another vision. We have investment funds, often Germanic, which invest in real estate, then put these properties on the rental market to rent them to companies which house their passing executives there. We know this in Paris and it allows us to respond to a specific request. The target audience is demanding. She’s used to living in this type of tower abroad.”
A strategy that the company will be able to refine in the coming months.
Requested on multiple occasions by, the Phalsbourg Company never responded to our requests.
A project supported by Jean-Luc Moudenc… and Carole Delga
If its 150 meters in height — almost three times the Pullman Hotelon the nearby Ramblas — will not go unnoticed in an urban landscape dominated by 30-meter buildings, this skyscraper is the wish of the mayor (various right) of Toulouse Jean-Luc Moudencbut also other political figures, such as the president (PS) of the Occitanie Region Carole Delgawhich indicated at the beginning of 2024, during the unveiling of the future Halle des Mobilités, which will be located opposite the building, that it was in favor of “vertical housing” in Toulouse and “new architectural signals”.
The neighborhood of all construction sites
In a district in the middle of the big bang, supposed to welcome the metro line C in 2028, and in 2032 the Bordeaux-Toulouse LGV, will the construction of this XXL building add another construction site to Matabiau before the Municipal elections? of 2026?
In recent weeks, the Tri Postal, a former railway building located along the tracks of Toulouse station, where the Tour d'Occitanie is to be built, has been demolished.
“The opponents” take note of the decision and launch an appeal to Toulouse residents
This Tuesday evening, the collective of opponents of the Tour d'Occitanie at the initiative of the appeal before the Council of State takes note of the decision rendered: “Although not understanding this decision in view of the numerous aberrations and risks security and safety that this project could cause to the population during the 2 to 3 years of construction and during the decades of existence of this skyscraper if it were confirmed by the promoter, we must take act”.
But for her, “the debate on the Occitanie Tower project is only just beginning given the great complexity of the file and the gray areas of the initial building permit for the Occitanie Tower”.
The association continues: “We are launching today an appeal to Toulouse residents to continue to mobilize peacefully against this skyscraper project. We will monitor events and legal monitoring, the probable future of which will allow modifying building permit and its characteristics. Modifying permit that we would challenge in court if it deviated from the initial building permit for the Occitanie tower of July 2019.
She concludes: We have not changed our minds! This skyscraper would be a real “gas factory” by being at the same time a triple environmental, aesthetic and financial disaster with a budget which should ultimately amount to half a billion euros.
(With David Saint-Sernin)
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