“It’s moving, there are thoughts”: what future for the former Gascogne clinic in Auch?

What will be the fate of the premises of the former Gascogne clinic in Auch? This is the question many are asking. The mystery persists as nature gradually takes back its rights at 55 avenue Sambre et Meuse. At the end of the alley, traces suggest the passage of a few curious people.

Some scattered graffiti decorate the walls. Nothing too bad. From the outside, the buildings are intact, no damage to report. The grass has grown and for good reason, for more than a year, the clinic has had its doors closed. Now a specialist security company monitors the entrances. The cameras are riveted on the doors which still bear traces of past activities.

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“Denial has given way to astonishment”: one year after the closure of the Gascogne clinic, patients and staff remain bitter

Cessation of payments, liquidation and receivership then closure: the crushing debt and the abysmal deficit finally ruined the manager of the premises, Clinavenir. Not to mention the astronomical rent that the polyclinic had to pay, amounting to almost a million euros, taxes included. Around a hundred staff members, administrative employees, members of the technical staff, the healthcare team and around thirty doctors are on the floor. Some have been able to bounce back while the establishment remains vacant.

A new owner: Praemia Healthcare

Until 2017, the clinic, in the hands of the Elsan group, leader in private hospitalization in France, owned its premises. It will ultimately sell the establishment to Icade Santé, a subsidiary of the Icade group in which the Caisse des Dépôts is a shareholder and which rented the premises to the manager. But at the time of closure, in March 2023, Primonial Reim, renamed Praemia Reim, concluded the first phase of the acquisition of Icade’s stake in Icade Santé for an amount of 1.4 billion euros.

Its subsidiary, Praemia Healthcare, a specialist in healthcare real estate asset management, currently owns 160 health and medico-social establishments which are rented to operators (Elsan, Clarian, Ramsay santé). In the region, this behemoth of the sector has 26 establishments, including the Gascogne polyclinic and its 7,514 m².

As of December 31, 2023, the structure, which provided 60% of the department’s surgical activity, was still awaiting restructuring. That, at least, is what Praemia Healthcare said in its annual report last year.

Retirement home, new clinic, medical-social center: what will replace the clinic? In Auch, rumors are rife. “I know that things are moving and that there are reflections. For some time, there has been talk of relaunching a project. But for the moment there is nothing precise,” reacted the mayor of Auch, Christian Laprebende.

What is certain is that today, the building remains in the hands of Praemia Healthcare, information confirmed by the company. In Occitania, the latter has no less than twenty establishments dedicated to health.

However, according to the latest report from this real estate investment specialist, the premises of the former Gascogne clinic remain the only ones in the region not to be exploited.