A college and shops in place of the former Saint-Michel prison in Toulouse?
It’s a real sea serpent in Toulouse. the municipal campaign since 2014, the future of the former Saint-Michel prison, decommissioned in 2009, is the subject of many twists and turns. Its location, right in the city center, arouses covetousness. And it is today the departmental council of Haute-Garonne which enters the dance, within the framework of a call for ideas launched by the State, extended until next October 31. “We weren’t settled but, from the moment we saw that the town hall was disengaging and we felt the promoters coming, we wanted to prevent the place from being disfigured and to reinstall public power”, indicates -on the department.
The auditorium project for the national orchestra of the Capitol, put forward by the mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc and which has long held the rope, seems abandoned. However, from 2015, discussions about the sale of the site were opened between the State and the city of Toulouse, in parallel with a study on the resolution of such a project. Four years later, the creation of the auditorium, accompanied by gardens, housing and an underground car park, seemed to be completed. For this, the cost of selling the Saint-Michel prison is set at 5.5 million euros, an estimate valid for six months. “The State thus agreed to substantially reduce the sale price possibly possibly”, recalls the prefecture of Haute-Garonne in a press release.
Problem, in the absence of commitment and lack of funding on the side of the town hall of Toulouse, the auditorium project was put aside.
With the opening of the call for ideas, the objective of which is “to bring out proposals for reconversion integrating an artistic and cultural vocation, for part of the buildings, and a memorial vocation, for the other part”, the department grabbed the ball. For this, the community is finalizing the construction of a file, in collaboration with various associations of local residents and veterans. There is already a consensus on several points.
The rotunda will be kept
“The project includes the construction of a college, because there is a lack in the sector. We are also planning cultural equipment, different from the auditorium, and culture-oriented shops, ”we inform the departmental council. In addition, the idea is to open the site to the neighborhood, without erasing the memorial aspect, in order to create a place for strolling and green spaces.
“The rotunda will be preserved and enhanced”, specifies in particular the department. Finally, the project provides for the construction of housing, from the existing building, for students and seniors, also including the accession to real solidarity lease. Other points remain to be determined and it will also be necessary, for the community, to take into account the new valuation of the site by the State.
If selected, this Saint-Michel prison rehabilitation project will be added to the place of memory retracing the 150 years of existence of the prison open to the public in 2020 within the Castelet.