“It all started with a day when we discovered the joys of cohabitation with suction cup cars, Amazon… There were small tensions in the Meinau district, says Lisa Ulmer, president of the very recent association groupement des Meinau companies (GEM) and director of Regmatherm. Until the day when leaving the offices, we all had PV. We weren’t very happy and we said to ourselves that from this negative point, we were going to do something positive and try to come together to create a force of proposals because we had many concerns and interests in common. »
This is how “the GEM was created”, explains Lisa Ulmer, accompanied by about fifteen company representatives, during a first meeting within the Eberhardt company in La Meinau. A meeting with the mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian, the president of the Eurometropolis Pia Imbs and agents and assistants who have worked on the problems of this district.
A historic district that needs to evolve
This group currently includes 14 companies of all sizes and from the entire district. “Some old ones are over 80 years old, companies that have made the history of Meinau”, underlines Lisa Ulmer. Objective: to promote the attractiveness of the area of activity which brings together more than 500 companies and 8,000 jobs and to participate in its development. Important point brought to the community, that the neighborhood does not become a residential area. The GEM was immediately reassured by the mayor of Strasbourg who affirmed the “collective desire to maintain the economic vocation of the Plaine de Bouchers. »
A necessary development for this large historic sector of more than 140 ares, located on the edge of the city center. An area as close as possible to major highways, including a railway line towards the Port du Rhin and the Neudorf freight station.
Problem, it is a little neglected and the insecurity is growing there, the group advances. Logistic traffic flows are often hampered and overflow into company car parks, which accentuates the lack of parking spaces, which are often congested by the real estate programs which are multiplying along the avenue de Colmar and borders the area. of activity. By the growing tertiarization, the presence of “illegal” businesses, prostitutes, rubbish, lists the GEM… A development that must be ordered and secured, in order to give businesses “the desire and good reasons to make large investments in this area of activity”, underlines Franck Pelle, managing director of the company Erberhardt.
Work on a “festive esplanade” project
Also, the GEM proposed to the city and the Eurometropolis, to work on the problems of safety, mobility of the employees, installation of shared electric terminals, common management of waste, etc. For their part, the communities stressed that they were working to modernize its accessibility, to strengthen the place of nature, to “promote the ecological transition of the Plaine des Bouchers by enhancing the Green Belt and promoting an ecological approach . »
And in “preview”, Jeanne Barseghian revealed a work project “to set up a festive esplanade on which there will be economic activities of diversified sectors, which could host major events, circuses, fairs” . A proposal that seems to have surprised the GEM audience for a moment. The latter set out to reaffirm the importance, first of all, of securing the premises and of moving towards another management of parking and traffic to make companies want to come and settle in the Plaine des Bouchers.
Source: 20minutes
