The story
Founded by Alain Taravella in 1994.1
Creation and development of the group
The company was founded in 1994 by Alain Taravella and Jacques Nicolet, and was initially engaged in the development of shopping malls. During the following years, it acquired several smaller firms in the French property sector: in 1995, Altarea acquired Le Gerec, a company created in 1973, specializing in shopping center construction. It won a competition organized by the town of Le Havre for the construction of Espace Coty.
In 1997, the firm began construction on the Bercy Village shopping center in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, which opened in 2000. The project aimed to revive a historic neighborhood of Paris. In 2001, the Italian subsidiary, Altarea Italia, was established. The Group opened several shopping centers in 2002: Espace Jaurès in Brest, Espace Grand’Rue in Roubaix, Côté Seine in Argenteuil, and the Gare du Nord boutiques in Paris. At the same time, it launched its open-air retail park activity by creating Compagnie Retail Park, a subsidiary in charge of this sector. The Group gradually developed its business activity in the European Union. It extended its activity to Italy in 2001 by creating Altarea Italia., and in 2004, Altarea España was created in Spain. Today, it features a major shopping center located in Sant-Cugat, near Barcelona. In 2011, Altarea supplemented its various business activities by creating AltaFund, an investment fund dedicated to office property.
Acquisitions
In 2007, Altarea purchased Cogedim. Founded in 1963, Codegim's main activities included the development of housing, offices and hotels. In addition to housing in major French metropolitan areas, the Group also developed its activity in upmarket commercial real estate and luxury hotels, with the renovation of the Salle Wagram in 2009, the opening of the Marriott Renaissance Arc de Triomphe, the Radisson Blu in Nantes in 2012, and the InterContinental Hôtel Dieu in Marseille in 2013.
In 2007, the Group acquired 34% of SEMMARIS–a semi-public company that manages the Rungis International Market–by becoming the majority shareholder alongside the state. The Rungis International Market is the world’s largest wholesale food market in terms of volume.
Development of retail and e-commerce activity
Since 2011, Altarea Cogedim has developed its commercial activity, opening several shopping centers in France: Family Village in Limoges, the Okabé shopping centre and offices in Kremlin-Bicêtre, the acquisition of Cap 3000 in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, near Nice. In all, Altarea owns 41 shopping centers in France, Italy and Spain.
In 2012, it acquired a 96.5% interest in Rueducommerce, an e-commerce company operating the website rueducommerce.fr. In August 2015, loss-making Rue du Commerce was sold to the Carrefour Group.
In 2014, the QWARTZ regional connected shopping center was opened in Hauts-de-Seine (92). It received quality certification in 2014 a MAPIC Award for "Most Innovative Shopping Center and the Special Jury Prize at the ninth SIIC awards.
In 2014, Altarea Cogedim launched the renovation and extension of the Cap 3000 center d in Saint-Laurent du Var.
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Growth of real estate activity
In 2012, Alain Taravella, president and founder of the Altarea Cogedim group, and Richard Hennessy, president of the Histoire & Patrimoine firm and a specialist in historic real estate, signed an agreement ceding 55% of the capital of Histoire & Patrimoine to Altarea Cogedim through a capital increase. In 2015, Altarea Cogedim announced its acquisition of Pitch Promotion, a transaction finalized in February 2016.
From Wikipedia’s article on Altarea SCA, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5