Base Commune revitalises ground floors of buildings
Practical notebook 16: (Re)developing productive activities in metropolitan areas
Thierry Petit, November 2024
Base Commune, a socially responsible property company with ESUS (Entreprise Solidaire d’Utilité Sociale) accreditation, is combating urban regeneration and property speculation by buying up the ground floors of buildings to develop occupations with a social impact and/or local utility. These ground floors are intended to be truly mixed-use spaces, open to the neighbourhood and accessible to a wide range of activities: SSEs, independent shops, services, crafts, small-scale facilities, cultural activities, community work, etc. These are all activities with a strong local impact, yet they are excluded from the traditional property market because of land prices. That’s why Base Commune offers premises that are accessible via a system of differentiated and progressive rents to enable these activities to set up permanently in the city. Base Commune’s mission is to transform ground floors into real urban commons.
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Base Commune is a socially responsible property company created by two cooperatives, Sens de la Ville and Plateau Urbain, and incorporates engineering and consultancy skills. Based on the observation that commercial vacancies on ground floors represent a major challenge for the vitality of neighbourhoods, its main aim is to buy and manage ground floors of buildings in order to set up activities with a social impact and/or of local utility when the high cost of rental rents precludes projects of collective interest. The occupants may be shops, craft workshops or associations.
It also markets premises at the request of third parties (local authorities, private developers). It operates mainly in the Île-de-France region, in Grigny on a former shopping centre, in Paris on the ground floor of buildings in the Paris Rive Gauche urban development zone, in Massy (Massy-Opéra urban development zone) and in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, in a former bank branch, on a temporary basis, as well as in Fontenaysous-Bois and Champigny-sur-Marne to set up shops with a social impact.
This real estate company offers discounted rents, up to a third of the market price, or progressive rents as the company’s project gains in financing capacity (increased sales). Leases can be traditional 3/6/9, with social clauses, or consist of a special lease. Base Commune retains ownership of the premises for a long period (minimum twelve years) to guarantee the social impact of the project, which does not prevent the premises from being resold to the project owner at a controlled price to avoid speculation.
This social approach is also reflected in the introduction of tenant selection criteria based on the social and local impact of their project, with the aim of creating an ecosystem within the neighbourhood. The choice is made after a study of local needs, which includes local stakeholders (including local authorities). Properties are selected primarily from new-build developments with all types of property developer. The latter are increasingly open to, and even willing to, this type of transaction, because they are aware that including a player with a social impact in their application file is a ‘plus’ when the call for tenders does not already include a clause of this type, with capped sale prices.
Base Commune negotiates its ground floor sale prices at a level that guarantees the financial equilibrium of future projects. In the future, it plans to buy existing premises in conjunction with local authorities. Base Commune is primarily targeting large plots (from 1,000 to 1,500 m²) to support projects operating as a cluster, so as to make it profitable to launch the operation and set up a site management service to ensure it runs smoothly. This property company primarily targets areas considered difficult in the inner suburbs, in particular Anru-type neighbourhoods. However, it is also active in the heart of metropolitan areas, such as Porte de la Villette in Paris.
Organised as a SAS Esus, Base Commune is eligible for public funding (Banque des territoires, France Active, Terre d’Innovation, etc.) as well as private funding (Caisse d’Épargne). Its aim is to expand throughout France, with the purchase of 3,000 square metres a year, with priority given to hosting tradespeople. Base Commune is part of an informal network of players operating in different fields, such as the Bellevilles property company, with which it helped to market a former bank at the foot of a building in Montereau, Village Vivants, which operates in rural areas, and Biens Communs, a property company focused more on housing. Other players are acting in the same spirit, such as the Dutch company Camelot Europe, which secures vacant premises through temporary occupation, My Korner Shop, which offers a form of participative financing to acquire commercial premises, and the 1,000 Cafés operation, which revitalises villages that have lost their shops by buying up the premises and guaranteeing a salary (minimum wage) for the managers of newly-created businesses.