Downtown Hyères is no exception. Like other town centers in France, it has long had a high commercial vacancy rate. “But this one experienced a very marked decrease in 2021”, assures the mayor.
Around 7.5% today, compared to 10% in 2018. And this, despite a well-known health and economic context.
“This rate is one of the lowest in France”, adds Jean-Pierre Giran, who refers to the 2020 report of the Cohesion Agency of government territories. Which indicates in particular “that in 2016, city centers with more than 25,000 inhabitants suffered from a commercial vacancy of 12.10%”.
Acquisition of vacant premises
How to explain this “significant decrease” Hyérois vacancy rate in the streets of the city center? It is not unrelated – according to the city – with the actions carried out, for almost seven years, within the framework of the urban development concession for the city center with the assistance of the mixed economy company Var Aménagement Développement (VAD); aid operations for storefronts since 2019 (3,000 euros, which covers 40% of the amount of eligible work, i.e. 12 files subsidized to date); a new OPAH-RU agreement on a wider scope, which makes it possible to strengthen subsidies for the renovation of private housing.
It intervenes on a perimeter of the city center, extended to the sectors of the Station, Good well, the city intervening in the fractions. This policy is illustrated by the acquisition of vacant premises “on priority sectors, specifies the mayor, to establish traditional commercial activities there.” (7 at Bon Puits, 8 in the Iles d’Or, Limans and Savonnier sector, 4 in the République and Cours Strasbourg sector, Editor’s note)
“In their twenties, half have already opened”, specifies Alain Laroche, representing the Hyères VAD branch. “A phenomenon has begun. It is linked, among other things, to the requalification of public space, the cultural offer in the city center, the quality of the living environment”, he comments. “On the path of the arts (about forty locals, Editor’s note) which earned the municipality a national urban prize in 2018, installation requests continue to greatly exceed the supply capacities that we have. We are overwhelmed with requests,” comments Jean Pierre Giran.
Only downside: the Avenue des Îles d’Or. “It is the only place where the vacancy rate is still high”, agrees the mayor.
And hasten to add: “But it will drop drastically in one to two years.” with committed operations. “My initial idea was that given the layout of the city, to make an open-air shopping center. I think we’re there, he observes. The quality of daily life depends on the proximity of shops and the attractiveness of citizens and tourists.”
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“The entrance to the Avenue des Îles d’Or will be reborn”
At Avenue des Iles d’Or, the vacancy rate fell by 4%. “It stays high, agrees the mayor, but everything that will have a commercial capacity on the Avenue des Îles d’Or will be occupied within two years.”
The reason? Finally, the city now has control of the building on the corner, at the top of Avenue Gambetta, and Place du Portalet.
On a linear of eight commercial premises, four will be in rehabilitation with the project of a grouping to increase the surfaces and capture new signs. On this entrance to the street, which is overdue today, the choice which has not yet been decided on will be commercial locomotives.
Which? “It will not necessarily be national brands”, nuance Alain Laroche, representing the company VAD. “You shouldn’t copy the galleries on the outskirts. A city center has its own identity. Local brands offer an offer that you can’t find elsewhere. We are not in the race for national brands even if we are, also, in contact.”
And to add: “In continuity, we are in the process of acquiring a whole linear where we will demolish buildings, struck by decrees of danger. We are going to rebuild a new program with four new commercial premises on the ground floor.”
The public space embellishment policy will continue with the future “rehabilitation of the avenues of the Iles d’Or, De Gaulle and the top of Gambetta”, main pedestrian arteries in the continuity of the place Clemenceau. A contractor has been chosen. First tranche delivered in 2023.
And also
- Avenue Gambetta: the rate fell by 2%, bringing the vacancy rate to 5.94%.
- Avenue Général-de-Gaulle: The vacancy rate is 3.70%, which is “extremely low”, according to the mayor. It was reduced by 9.26% in 2021.
- Limans Street: “We have a vacancy rate of 8.33%, compared to 21% just a year ago”. “We are starting from very far. But following the requalification of the street, and several interventions on the premises, the rate is falling. We have a dynamic project that is starting.”
- Rue place de La République: the vacancy rate is 2.86% compared to 17% in May 2020.
- Rue de Rempart: 6.25% vacancy rate.
- Denis Avenue: 3.70%.
- Cours de Strasbourg: 11.76%, but the vacancy rate is falling sharply.
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