A dramatic twist in the history of Toulouse town planning. Toulouse Business School (TBS), the prestigious business school of the Pink City, has decided not to build its 30,000 m2 mega campus in its historic cradle in the Compans-Caffarelli district. While the first sod was to be given this summer, the TBS Education group, whose Chamber of Commerce and Industry de Toulouse (CCI) is a 99% shareholder, announcing this Friday to “end” the project. The reasons for this abandonment? A “general increase in costs”, caused in particular by “the health crisis, legislative constraints, the War in Ukraine, the surge in interest rates”, lists management in a press release.
Launched in 2018, the vast project was estimated at 120 million euros. It now stands at 200 million, not counting the five years behind schedule. “Parameters that make it unrealizable” as it stands.
The mayor takes note with “disappointment”
The 6,000 students can forget the visuals broadcast, which will remain at the computer-generated image stage. The establishment will find “more responsible and rational real estate solutions in Toulouse” for them. And above all, the Compans-Caffarelli district, which was to be completely modified by this large-scale real estate operation, including the destruction of the Petit Palais des Sports, will have to reinvent itself again.
Warned in advance of this thunderclap, Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse and president of Toulouse Métropole, takes “note with disappointment of the choice of TBS Education not to complete the project”. The councilor indicates that the community will resume dialogue with the establishment “to support it in another project when it has defined it on new bases” The town hall will also and above all “think about the future” with “the associations involved in neighborhood life”, sports clubs in particular.