“L’Arbre aux hérons has not said its last word”, confirmed “loudly” its designers, François Delarozière and Pierre Oréfice, in a public statement dated last Thursday. Five days later, the trend seems to be confirmed, since the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire announces that a private financing solution is being found.
“We have found an economic model, with investors and bankers who are ready, indicating 20 minutes Yann Trichard, the president of the CCI, confirms information from Western France. The logic, as in a concession, is that the private sector comes to help the public by investing in a company to build the tree, manage it and operate it. But the goal is that, in the long term, it will be returned to the people of Nantes and to the metropolis, which provides a location. »
Investors and non-patrons
The ambitious project, which would take the form of a vegetated metal structure for the public to walk on, at the heart of the Misery quarry, is currently estimated by the CCI at “53 or 55 million euros”. A budget that could soon be implemented to the extent of offering businesses and individuals to become investors, and not patrons as previously envisioned, would arouse more excitement.
If the relaunch of the project would therefore be “possible”, according to the CCI, there are still many details to be clarified before presenting the file to the president of the Nantes metropolis and engaging in discussions. Due to an explosion of costs, Johanna Rolland had decided two months ago to abandon the project, which was to be financed one-third by the metropolis, one-third by public actors and one-third by private actors. Nantes Métropole then put forward a total cost estimated at 80 million euros.
