These renovation works at the La Coupole shopping center will affect stallholders at Les Halles de Nîmes

Côté rue Général Perrier, les palissades cachent le début des travaux menés à La Coupole. Midi Libre – Y. B.

Before the arrival of Galeries Lafayette in the fall of 2025, Socri is launching a major project at the La Coupole shopping center. Stallholders will be involved.

Before the summer, with great fanfare, representatives of the Nîmes municipality and Socri, which manages the La Coupole shopping center, celebrated the announcement of major renovation work and, above all, the arrival of Galeries Lafayette in the fall of 2025.

An announcement that could also please the stallholders of Les Halles even if three of them will be directly impacted by the installation of new escalators.

Negotiations to be compensated

“We know that we will be impacted”, confides Laurent who is keen on the entrance, on the Général Perrier side, his butcher's shop, before adding: “The work began in July. Those for the installation of new escalators are planned from January to March 2025, before Easter. There has not been such a major renovation since the work at Les Halles in the 1970s. For safety reasons, there will be a tunnel and three shops will be closed, including mine.”

The Nîmes butcher-delicatessen indicates that he is waiting for feedback from Socri and the town hall: “I asked for plans, a meeting, but it's unclear. I let the summer go by and now I'm really waiting for an answer. I'm going to have to close for three months because I can't have an identical lease, a place to relocate my business with a 10-meter bench, a freight elevator, a laboratory.”

Municipal councilor delegated to the Halles, fairs and markets, Christophe Pio specifies that the stallholders concerned “have entered, via their lawyers, into financial negotiations with Socri to define the amount of compensation for the three months of work. Three stallholders will not be able to work because their stand will be impacted by the work on the escalators. The elected official considers that Socri has no interest in not reaching an agreement with the traders to keep to its work schedule.

9M€ construction site

Socri Limited is planning a second phase of the construction site for a budget of 9M€. On site, fences have been installed on rue Général-Perrier in front of the building to secure the area, where workers are busy.

These renovations designed by architects A + architecture and Aura include the complete renovation of the main entrance on rue Général Perrier. The one where three stalls are located that will have to close temporarily. There will also be the installation of new escalators that will directly access Galeries Lafayette as well as the complete restructuring of the shopping center just above Les Halles.

This project, which should be completed in the fall of 2025, will be much less significant than the major renovation work on Les Halles scheduled for January 1, 2030 for a duration of eighteen months and which is causing even greater concern for Nîmes stallholders.

140th anniversary celebrations with the City in November

Some events could not take place for the 140th anniversary of Les Halles. "It is not a relationship problem with Vincent Vergne, president of the Halles promotion association, but we have not been provided with all the documents to pay the subsidy that would have allowed the organization of the events", indicates municipal councilor Christophe Pio. The latter indicates that the City plans to celebrate the 140th anniversary on November 9 and 10 with a fanfare, exhibition, fresco, children's poster competition with the artist Melvyn Barros.

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