The decision by the administrative court of appeal of Marseille, which rejected the appeal filed by the association “En toute franchise” regarding the future establishment of an Ikea store in Saint-Isidore, revives the project that had been halted pending the conclusion of the legal dispute.
Christian Estrosi naturally welcomed this judgment with satisfaction: “It’s a victory for the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis, which for more than two years has continued to defend this beautiful and large project that creates jobs and income for the communities.”
The mayor also wanted to highlight the harmful economic impact of the baseless actions by protesting associations, in this case and others: “This decision proves that those who want to prevent projects of general interest from coming to fruition will always be proven wrong, even though I regret that our discussions did not allow them to realize the harm they caused to this project by delaying the economic benefits brought about by this installation.”
As for the project, it will create 400 direct jobs (350 for Ikea and 50 for retail), the construction of 289 housing units, including 74 social housing units, and revenue of nearly 1.6 million euros for the Metropolis.
With the favor of this decision, and from the beginning of April, the IKEA company will commence the initial work on the access ramps to the parking lot, to later make way for the completion of the T3 tramway station starting in early November 2018.
The construction work on the real estate operation itself (store and housing) will then continue in the summer of 2018 for an estimated duration of 26 months, with completion expected by the end of 2020.
