Toulouse: the difficult delivery of the senior residence of Bazacle
An aborted project to host Sciences-Po, opposition from local residents, the purchase of the building by a promoter who ultimately resold it to another. A building permit and two amending permits. After ten years of abandonment and many twists and turns, the former EDF building on Quai Saint-Pierre will become a top-of-the-range senior residence.
The site overflows on the sidewalk, quai Saint-Pierre, opposite the EDF-Bazacle, in Toulouse. A backhoe ripped open the rear part of the old EDF building. A time planned to accommodate Sciences Po on the banks of the Garonne, finally relocated to the former factory, the brick building located between the Brienne canal and the river, will house a senior residence with ninety rather high-end apartments, with a pool.
Micmac real estate
The building, abandoned for ten years, was at the heart of a real estate mishmash, a real soap opera with many twists and turns. Mayor Pierre Cohen’s initial idea of hosting Sciences Po, cramped in its historic premises on rue des Puits-Creusés, sparked opposition from local residents. Some were furious to see their view of the Garonne obscured (the projected building was to rise 21 m in height) while others were worried about the paths and possible places of students in the neighborhood.
Just elected to the Capitol in 2014, Jean-Luc Moudenc froze the project, invoking appeals, to the chagrin of the Regional Order of Architects, which protested against the cancellation of an architectural competition in good and due form.
The promoter Thierry Oldak took over the building from the community, in 2016, for 4.7 million euros, the price that the EPFL (local public land establishment), an offshoot of Toulouse Métropole, had paid for it. The promoter obtained a building permit for a luxury senior residence and transferred the operation, in draft form, three years later to Cogedim, for 11 million euros, pocketing a nice capital gain in the process.
A project that still needed to be amended with two modifying permits, one relating to vehicle access and the creation of a relaxation area, the other on access to the basement and the addition of a swimming pool, not originally planned. Historic buildings from the 18th centuryand along the Garonne will be retained. “The City is attentive to the protection and enhancement of its heritage”, we are assured at the Capitol.