Klépierre and its partners, SNCF and Spie batignolles, inaugurated ST.LAZARE PARIS, the Saint-Lazare train station's brand new retail space on Wednesday March 21. It will open to the public at the end of March 2012.
Ideally situated in the heart of one of the largest retail and business neighborhoods of the French capital, ST.LAZARE PARIS features three mid-sized units and around 80 shops, services and restaurants. Located in an exceptional architectural setting, the new complex covers 10,000 m² of GLA1, totally integrated over the station's three levels (train platform, street and subway).
ST.LAZARE PARIS also offers underground parking for 250 vehicles.
Investor, developer and manager of shopping centers, Klépierre is the artisan of this new retail space in the heart of Paris. After winning the competition among retail real estate specialists launched by SNCF in 1996 as part of the metamorphosis of the oldest train station in Paris, the Group will have invested almost 160 million in this project.
In July 2008, it signed a 40-year temporary occupation permit (AOT Autorisation d'Occupation Temporaire) with SNCF, going into effect on the retail space's opening date. Klépierre handled the leasing of the space and is managing it via its subsidiary Ségécé.
The space was fully leased up several months before the doors were ready to open, attesting to its appeal for retailers, won over not just by design and conception factors but also by its exceptional potential the result of the combined effect of the commuter traffic flow, the catchment area and the location.
"Commuter hubs and structural elements of urban planning, train stations shopping centers have certain things in common. Saint-Lazare train station is truly exceptional, in terms of the number of visitors it attracts daily as well as its location in the heart of Paris," commented Laurent Morel, Chairman of the Klépierre Executive Board.
"Thanks to the singular nature of the site and the architectural qualities of the historic edifice, we were able to create a magnificent retail space and design a retail mix made of brands that respond to different buying preferences of the thousands of visitors the station draws each day.
"ST.LAZARE PARIS features a retail offer that combines utility composed of food shopping and services with pleasure, including a culture and leisure retailer, and a broad range of retail names in ready-to-wear and beauty," he adds, concluding that "this is also the story of a successful partnership with SNCF and Spie batignolles, which spanned more than 15 years and ensured the success of this complex and ambitious project."
An exceptional retail space in the heart of Paris
DGLa and AREP were the architects of the full reconfiguration of the station and the creation of its retail space. Spie SCGPM, a subsidiary of the Spie batignolles group, carried out the construction work on this unusual project, without ever closing the station, which continued to operate normally throughout.
Modern, comfortable, functional and opening out to the city, the new Saint-Lazare train station is more transparent, offering greater insight into its spaces and their functions and a more fluid traffic flow thanks to new vertical liaisons: four vast shafts house 20 escalators (compared with the eight that existed previously) and allow the natural light to bathe the entire space, all the way down to the subway level.
The entryway to one of Europe's largest downtown retail districts, Saint-Lazare train station is a major convergence hub (trains, buses, subway lines and RER regional trains).
Europe's second-largest station, it welcomes 450,000 travelers a day, most of them daily commuters to and from Paris and its suburbs to the west, and a total of 1.2 million visitors, for all means of transportation combined.
A quality retail mix for everyone
A preferred partner of major retailers, Klépierre has put together, for this atypical space, a mix of 80 shops that combines convenience retailers, well-known concept
