Toulouse: why the Occitanie Tower does not take off
Jean-Luc Moudenc publicly raised, before the council of Toulouse Métropole, the possibility that the Tour Occitanie would not be done. Presented in 2017, the 150 m high Toulouse skyscraper project was to be legally delivered in 2022. It is facing appeals.
This day of March 15, 2017 seems far away when the model of what was then called “Occitanie Tower” was unveiled, in accordance with the Mipim event in Cannes, the annual and international real estate festival. The sponsors of the Occitanie Tower were Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and president of the metropolis, Daniel Libeskind, the world-renowned American architect designer of the 150 m high eco-skyscraper, and Philippe Journo, the boss of the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, the promoter of the project.
And if the “symbol tower” did not happen
Today, five years and a few days later, the location on the edge of the canal where the 40-storey building is to be erected, a kind of plant spiral destined to dominate the neighboring Matabiau station and the Cabanis Media Library, has certainly been cleaned up. The old station sorting center has been cleared. But, behind the palisades, no building site is emerging. In 2017, a building permit was announced for 2019 and delivery of the tower to the hanging gardens for 2022. The permit was issued, but it was attacked before the Toulouse administrative court by pugnacious opponents
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On March 24, the mayor of Toulouse even mentioned, briefly in front of elected metropolitan officials, the possibility that this “symbolic tower” would not be built. In response to a question from the ecologist Antoine Maurice on the future of the Grand Matabiau district project, Jean-Luc Moudenc, while reiterating his support for the tower, recalled: “it is not a constituent element of the urban project of Grand Matabiau, which will be done, even if the tower was not done”.
Three years of workIt is estimated that three years of work will be necessary to build the 150 m high tower (nearly half of the Eiffel Tower) and 40 floors which should accommodate 11,000 m 2
of offices, a hundred housing units, hanging gardens, a Hilton hotel and a panoramic restaurant on the roof top for an investment of around 150 million euros.
The court could decide by May
For the president of Toulouse Métropole, joined this Monday, April 4, “what blocks is the legal recourse against the permit itself”, still not decided by the administrative court, which should decide by May. “The administrative judge rejected the other appeal, relating to the modification of the PLU (local urban plan, editor’s note), but the applicants appealed”.
Attacked by Antoine Maurice on a skyscraper project which would have been “imposed”, according to his ex-challenger environmentalist in the last municipal elections, Moudenc retorts: “A public inquiry has corroborated it” and he points out: “appeals are carried by three extremely politicized associations
and only two residents. There is no problem with the population”.
Moudenc and Cie de Phalsbourg confident
The mayor declared himself confident, referring to “the very particular economic model of the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, which carries out few operations but significant ones and, being the owner of a large heritage, receives operations of tens of millions from its tenants each month. , which allows it to invest in such operations”. On the Compagnie de Phalsbourg side, Eric Paillot, director of development, assures us: “nothing will make us give up on this project”.
Only justice could decide otherwise. […] What Moudenc said in front of Toulouse Métropole
A public inquiry corroborated it, and I observe one thing, the two appeals against this project, whether for the first means through the modification of the PLU, punctual, and for the second means against the issuance of the permit -even, are supported by three politicized associations and only two local residents. There is no problem with the population.” No to the Toulouse skyscraper, Friends of the Earth and Right to Housing.