"It's completely dead": how this Antibes shopping mall turned into a fiasco

Installing a shopping mall in the same building as the convention center in Juan-les-Pins: it was supposed to be a revolutionary idea and even a first in France.

At the time, it was envisioned that this three-story shopping center, with a supermarket, restaurants, and shops, would energize the seaside resort year-round while conference attendees from around the world met above.

Twelve years later, the observation makes one laugh - or cry. Because this shopping mall is, surely, the biggest commercial failure in Antibes.

Today, as has been the case for years, there is not a single store open. Only a physiotherapist's office, a radiology center, and the Fitness Park gym attract visitors.

"If it did not have the expected growth, this is not the fault of the City but, perhaps, of the poor strategic choices of commercial activity in the gallery," Mayor Jean Leonetti had criticized at the municipal council meeting in April 2023, in response to the opposition.

Indeed: it was after a call for tenders in 2009 that the municipality concluded a fifty-year emphyteutic lease with the Duval Group for the management of the center.

So what happened?

“Brands have withdrawn due to lack of standing”

"At the time, I remember in the plans, there was supposed to be a footbridge that would allow delegates to exit via the shopping mall, but it never saw the light of day," says Axel Higuero, the manager of Fitness Park, who has been there since the center opened in 2013.

"At first, there was a jewelry store, a perfumery, a hairdresser, a massage parlor... Swarovski was supposed to come, but when they saw the lack of traffic, they changed their minds. Then things started to go south when the perfumer lost some big brands. Dior and Chanel withdrew their perfumes because the gallery didn't match their standards."

Fitness Park attracts 600 visitors per day

Axel Higuero knows this well: his 2,000m² gym upstairs is the only business that survived when all the stores closed. In fact, everyone we meet in the mall is there just to work out.

"We have 600 visitors a day. We originally chose this location to be in a new building in the center of Juan-les-Pins. But today we're a little frustrated with the rent we're paying. Paying full price in a successful gallery would be justified, but here..."

And it wasn't for lack of belief: at the launch, the sports coach provided entertainment on the forecourt of the palace, and organized evenings for members on the rooftop (also closed today...).

"In Juan-les-Pins, businesses operate a lot with seasonal leases because there's no one there in winter. However, in the mall, there's no such strategy, so the stores can't survive year-round. I think what would work would be to install medical equipment," the manager argues.

Lidl to replace Auchan

Hélène Octo, a midwife who works in the physiotherapist's office next door, shares the same opinion: "I know we operate because we're in the healthcare sector, our patients come for us, but it's true that the gallery is completely dead. We moved here in 2023 because it's accessible to people with reduced mobility, and my clients are from the city center, so they can come on foot - and that's a good thing, because parking is expensive."

So could the Duval Group transform its strategy and redirect it towards healthcare? Does it plan to one day revive its stores when the luxurious Provençal shopping mall, a few meters away, opens in 2026? Or could it lend its premises to expand the Antipolis convention center?

We asked him all these questions, but, as he has for years, Duval prefers to remain silent. There is, however, one new development to announce: Lidl will replace Auchan, the supermarket at -1, by this fall.