Almost a year after the laying of “the first stone” by Emmanuel Macron, his Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin officially announced this Friday morning, on the occasion of his visit to Nice, the launch of work on the first “police hotel” in France and Europe.
Each stone will not wait a year to be laid, the construction site of this modern building which will pool the forces of order will begin on January 9, 2023 for a delivery of this future space of 50,000 m2 in December 2025. “The schedule will be respected “, assured Cyril Dupuy, regional director building Côte d’Azur, subsidiary of Vinci Construction.
Three phases of work
This project carried “for twelve years” by Christian Estrosi will be built in three phases in order to accommodate 1,200 national police officers and 800 municipal ones. “We are going to requalify the district for this exemplary project”, detailed the mayor of Nice. The community will eliminate 12,000 truck rotations, beautify Place Marshall and green it.
First, for six months, the work will consist of deconstructing and demolishing. Then, until the summer of 2024, it will be the rehabilitation phase to finally finish on the facades and the interior. Cyril Dupuy develops: “The desire is to preserve the facades of 1858 and the historic building. Concretely, this means that we will remove the columns, we will renovate them and we will reinstall them to update them to the level of standards, in particular seismic. Everything around will be new. In total, 60% of the premises will be new and 40% renovation. »
The future police station will also be “a pleasant place to live” and “respectful of the environment”. “We will be exemplary on this subject, continues the representative of Vinci construction. There will be 300 m2 of photovoltaic panels, rainwater recovery, heat pumps but also 30% savings in the concrete that we have chosen to use for the works and the use of biosourced materials. . He adds: “Green roofs will keep buildings cool. »
A model for other major cities in France?
This future equipment, which “aims to put an end to the intolerable working conditions experienced by national police officers”, according to the municipality of Nice, will also be “the first urban hypervision and command center in France” and to where the images from the city’s 4,000 CCTV cameras will converge.
According to Gérald Darmanin, “all the police will scramble to come to Nice”. He recalled his “admiration” for the mayor of Nice for having “pushed the doors of the Ministry of the Interior” and allowed the construction of this police station. “We would like all the mayors of France to be like Christian Estrosi to help the national police. »
For this project, the State is investing more than 200 million euros out of the 214 needed to “support the city and the region”. “It’s more than in any other project,” said the minister, recalling a budget of 400,000 euros per year, out of the budget of 15 billion for the five-year term, for the renovations of police stations. He added: “We are very open to all security partnerships and we are working on this with other major cities in the country. As in Marseille where the government announced the reconstruction of a central police station and this is the case in around fifty other cities in France. »
In a joking tone, the Minister of the Interior all the same underlined that “a good policeman is the one we see, who is as little as possible in his car or on his premises”, even if “this future hotel will be so beautiful and welcoming”.