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From no-go factory district to go-getting business hub.
Sarah Wachter takes the metro to the end of the line.
Most people probably know Seine-Saint-Denis – or
its postcode shorthand ‘93’ – from TV footage of
burning cars in 2005, during the French capital’s
worst riots in decades. But while those scenes of
Paris burning were a wake-up call for France to
engage its unemployed and disenfranchised youth,
the images hardly conveyed the whole picture.
Thrust into the limelight by the Stade de France, which was built
on industrial wasteland for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, this peri-urban
area is now highly desirable for companies seeking an alternative to
traffic-choked Paris and the anomie of high-rise office life.
France’s World Cup victory at the Stade delivered a further boost
of confidence to the area and by 2000 Seine St. Denis was the third-largest
commercial district in the metropole after Paris proper and La
Defense, that high-rise ghetto on on the city’s western fringe.
Businesses continue to move to 93 and not only because
commercial rents are roughly half those of Paris or that there are
other fiscal incentives being dangled; some sectors, such as science
and technology, have collectively received more than €1.5bn in tax
breaks. The area’s network of canals, and ample green spaces are also
a big draw and the local government has been busily renovating any
lingering bucolic environs.
Former factories are now chic loft apartments; indeed France’s
long-running reality TV show, Loft Story, is filmed in the area along
with other shows. The neighbouring Plaine district is seeing continued
expansion as more and more TV, film, and multimedia production
houses – and their symbiotic watering holes – arrive.
The growth streak for Seine-Saint-Denis as a commercial centre
shows no signs of letting up: around two million square metres of
office space are slated for completion over the next decade, says Francis
Dubrac, chairman of economic development agency Comex93. For the
last four years, economic growth in the area has run at between 7%
and 8% – almost quadruple the national average.
Global businesses are now moving in to 93 because it is conveniently
sited between Charles de Gaulle airport, one of the busiest in Europe,
the Le Bourget business airport, and the Paris Nord-Villepinte
exhibition complex to the north and the City of Light to the south.
New multinationals in the area in the past two years include: IBM, ad
agency Saatchi and Saatchi, Nokia, Arcelor Mittal, Samsung, Italian
insurer Generali, Air France and electrical engineering outfit Cegelec.
While the area was historically characterised by large factories
and small businesses, now Seine-Saint-Denis is embarking on major
office development schemes. EuropaCorp, the production company
of French filmmaker Luc Besson, recently started work to convert an
abandoned power station into a 10,000m2 studio with
office space to rent. The former Grands Moulins (flour mills) in the
Pantin neighbourhood are being converted into offices for 3,800
workers of French bank BNP Paribas to move into next year.
Transport links to Paris are also being improved, across the county,
as three metro lines are due to be extended, and new light rail service
will be introduced to several communities over the next three years.
After the searing experience of the 2005 riots, Seine-Saint-Denis
has become not only an incubator of new business development, it has
also one for ideas to solve its youth unemployment problem. A local
Second Chance school retraining programme, which has managed
to get 80% of its students hired, is under review by the Ministry of
Sports for national roll-out.
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