Now that the recovery has begun, is the upturn in activity noticeable in the La Défense district?
Franck Boucher - The comeback is gradual, but things are starting to move. You can see it in the figures for people using the transport network, but also in the number of people in the shops and on the restaurant terraces. The Cœur Défense building, where we have our offices, for example, has exceeded 30 % employees and the company restaurant has reopened. Before the summer, we will probably reach 40 % of presence in the district. However, even if the easing of sanitary rules to be respected in companies will encourage employees to return more quickly than imagined, I don't see any reason why this should be the case. no return to normal before september. The major groups that have been implementing return plans for the last two months are not going to change their strategies. It would cost a lot of effort and energy. And the summer holidays will interrupt the return to work. Especially as, if I take the case of my teams, I feel a need and a lot of fatigue after this difficult period.
In terms of health, what has Paris La Défense done to help employees return to work?
F. B - We worked with the companies to ensure that the site was capable of welcoming employees in complete safetyThis included increased cleaning of lifts and escalators, and access management with the RATP. Quite quickly, we organised a meeting with the association of companies using the area to see how we could help them with the takeover. To limit the notorious morning and evening peaks, we also reintroduced the staggered arrival plan that we had put in place with Ile-de-France Mobilités. With the Hauts-de-Seine department, cycle lanes have been installed from the Neuilly bridge to the boulevard circulaire, and an agreement has been reached with the prefecture to authorise the use of bicycles. bicycle traffic under the slabThis means you can cycle to the foot of the towers. It's a real step forward. In this context, the Covid crisis has accelerated the necessary reforms.
Let's go back a few weeks. What does it look like, a huge business district like La Défense emptied of its employees? Has your establishment also ceased trading?
F. B - It was quite impressive. I went there occasionally, but one of my colleagues who is lucky enough to live in the area sent me some incredible photos and videos. No noise, total silence. The area was 'closed' in the sense that our main users, the companies and their employees, no longer physically came to the towers. But Defence continued to operate. We put our business continuity plan in place the day before the lockdown. All our employees already had experience of teleworking, which saved us time. However, not all of them worked from home. We still had to maintain the neighbourhood and carry out maintenance. Our main concern was to ensure the safety of all the facilities. As a result, the security control centre has continued to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Another thing that goes a little unnoticed, but which is important for our establishment, which has a real CSR policy, was the management of the many homeless people who live in the basements and on the outskirts of the district.
In what ways are you concerned about this fragile population?
F. B - With the closure of the restaurants that distributed food to them at the end of the day and the places where they cleaned themselves, these people found themselves in an even more precarious situation than usual. We reopened the fountains that had been closed for the winter. The Maison de l'amitié association received an exceptional grant from us to be able to take care of them quickly. Key accounts at La Défense also received beautiful gestures. As part of our fight against food waste, we also collected surplus food from inter-company restaurants whose fridges were full at the time of the lockdown. The Arena lent its fridges and all this food was redistributed.
We wanted to get up to speed quickly and show that we have a role to play in the recovery.
But Paris La Défense is not standing still...
F. B - After this moment of shock, we quickly had to take a stand on a number of issues, including a e-press conference to announce the launch of the development of the sub-slab (Editor's note: 20,000 square metres of unused space will be transformed into living spaces). It was a project close to the heart of Patrick Devedjian, our Chairman who died of Covid. This confined e-conference was a way of paying tribute to him, but also to show that La Défense was still in action. We wanted to quickly put ourselves in fighting order to show that we will have a role to play in the recovery. One of our greatest assetsCompared with other business districts, our strength lies in the fact that we are not specialised and that we have managed to remain a generalist with large companies in banking and finance, others in energy and communications, but also small businesses in coworking spaces. This gives us greater resilience to economic shocks.
Are you already feeling the effects of the crisis on the attractiveness of the district? What impact will it have on its development?
F. B - For the moment, I can't see any impact. Recently, we saw the signing of an agreement between Vinci, Groupama and Total for the construction of The Link, the future tallest tower in France which will house Total's new headquarters. Other projects are showing signs of recovery. The Altiplano project to restructure the Ile-de-France building has been confirmed. Construction of the Hekla tower (Editor's note: a 48-storey tower designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel) is continuing. We do not see any consequences for the moment, but there will undoubtedly be trade-offs. Rather than stopping projects, we are certainly heading for an increase in the vacancy rate. We are delivering almost 500,000 m2 of office space over the next five years. We know that they will have to be filled, hence the mathematical increase in the vacancy rate, but this could be higher than expected if companies lose interest in towers that are already occupied. At the same time, we are continuing to regeneration of the Groues districtin Nanterre, and Champs-Philippe in La Garenne-Colombes, where Engie will be setting up its new campus. These mixed neighbourhoods with 15,000 homes, colleges and a focus on sustainable development are proving a real success, with a considerable number of projects. An area like this, which is being redeveloped within a stone's throw of Europe's leading business district and very close to Paris, can't afford to go to waste.
Teleworking, videoconferencing: employees have been able to experiment with alternatives to their presence in the district's towers. Could the attractiveness of La Défense suffer in the future?
F. B - More than the business districts themselves, it is above all office property that is going to change. I foresee the end of the traditional office. It will certainly take time, but the future is the flex office. I don't believe in 100% teleworking. We need to find a balance, probably two days a week, as the HR directors of large companies I talk to think. But no more than that, because teams need to get together. Decisions are taken 10 times faster face-to-face than via Teams or Zoom. In a whole raft of professions, the essential added value that a company provides is creativity. Hence the need for places where employees can come together, share their ideas and drive projects forward. And that's rather than offices where people come to work mindlessly behind their computers. Our own offices have been based on this idea for some time and, if you look at future projects, this spirit predominates. And, when we talk to our friends in other business districts around the world, it's this trend confirmed. This is in addition to our commitment to transforming La Défense into a livable districtWith a wide range of services and places where colleagues can meet for a drink.
In a whole host of businesses, creativity is the key to adding value to the company. Hence the need for places where employees can come together, share their ideas and drive projects forward.
So isn't the very idea of a major business district out of step with future prospects?
F. B. - Rather than calling the model into question, as some say, it's more a question of confirmation of its relevance. The advantage of La Défense, but also of Canary Wharf, the Loop in Chicago and the Loop in Beijing, is that our towers allow this type of layout. It's more complicated to create flex offices or project rooms in Haussmann buildings. That's because you have load-bearing walls, listed buildings and enormous modification costs. For us, it's all about two stairwells and lifts, and we can do whatever we want inside.
But doesn't the district still face a number of challenges?
F. B. - It's clear that our towers need to be modernised, but La Défense has already done a great deal of restructuring. In 15 years, 70 % of building surface area has been restructured. Where we still have work to do is on the sustainable developmenteven if EY study puts us second in the world in this respect (Editor's note: The report "The attractiveness of global business districts" 2020 published by EY and the Urban Land Institute ranks La Défense behind Frankfurt's Bankenviertel, but ahead of the City of London, Toronto's Financial District and Amsterdam Zuidas.). As with all other business districts, there is still a lot to be done. Not so much in terms of doing new things, but in terms of letting people know what we're already doing. For example, at La Défense, most of the projects, apart from The Link and HeKla, are restructurings. Like the Altiplano project - a building that will be stripped, raised and refurbished on an existing base - we are no longer tearing down the tower to build a new one. We're rethinking the asset.
What other sustainable development initiatives are you involved in?
F. B. - We are doing a lot in terms of CSR policy, energy savings and water treatment. For example, the Arena recovers all the rainwater for its network. These are things that we don't publicise enough and that we need to promote more. It's important in the fight against climate change, but it's also important in the fight against climate change. for the employer brand in business districts. Today's young employees are looking for companies that share their commitment to society. For our main users, i.e. companies, to be able to attract them, the district must have this involvement, this good image. It's an exciting job.
