Métropole Nice works with BearingPoint on real estate master plan

Over the past months, Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur worked with consultants from BearingPoint on the recalibration of its long-term real estate strategy.

With a population of over 500,000 people, the Nice metropole is one of France’s larger of the in total 20 métropoles. These métropoles consist of multiple – mostly dozens – of communes (France has over 34,000 communes) that cooperate on areas such as local taxation, government services and administrative support to businesses and citizens.

The Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur oversees around 50 communes, including capital Nice itself as well as the likes of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villefranche-sur-Mer and Vence.

Facing a range of trends impacting the way government buildings are owned, used and maintained, including the disruption caused by the pandemic (more remote working) and the need to provide more focus to sustainability, Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur earlier this year launched a process to update its real estate strategy.

The objective was to gain clear insight in its building assets portfolio, and use this information to create a real estate master plan for the coming years. With the help of BearingPoint, the metropole managed to populate an exhaustive inventory of its assets (which are pretty scattered), after which future-proof plans were drafted for each property.

To reach this point, the metropole and BearingPoint followed a six-step approach. Olivier Chappert, a partner at BearingPoint explains: “Starting with the collection and consolidation of asset inventory followed by data cleansing, the process led to a complete and accurate master database. The real estate data was then examined using different analysis streams, including critical financial aspects, technical details, occupancy rates, and regulatory compliance.”

“The joint team then defined a single real estate policy outlining the objectives, actions, and key performance indicators to follow for the next ten years. The defined asset-by-asset strategy indicated whether an asset should be sold, kept, or renovated and the likely costs of any actions.”

Based on the insights gathered, Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur can now “optimise its property management, investments in assets, administrative activity and increase the financial returns from assets,” said Elodie Rostand, who led the project at the side of Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur.