To serve the general interest through dynamic partnerships

All of the Grouping’s members are state-owned corporations (“établissements publics”), whose object is to meet the demands of the general interest. Like private corporations, they are industrial and commercial organisations. Their financial  autonomy allows them to participate in urban development projects such as housing, business parks, etc. They have to balance their books.

Urban development corporations

New towns
New town urban development corporations were founder members of ADÉFRANCE in France are now home to one million inhabitants (four fifths of whom in the Paris area, where new towns have absorbed half of the region’s growth since 1975). In addition, they have generated 450,000 jobs, that is, over one new job per gainfully employed person. So, the gamble of the 1960s has paid off! Thanks to mixed-income housing, the new towns have accommodated a socially diverse population. By successfully attracting a large number of public and private sector companies and providing universities as well as major cultural, retail and leisure facilities, the new towns have become real poles of urban development.

• The Etablissement Public d'Aménagement Marne-la-Vallée


• The Etablissement Public d'Aménagement Sénart

La Défense business district

• The Etablissement Public de la Défense Seine-Arche (EPADESA) established in 1958, designed and built this district. Today, around 1,500 companies, including major global corporations, are located there.

An urban development corporation for a french overseas country (Département d'outre-mer)

• The Etablissement Public d’Aménagement en Guyane (EPAG) was established to keep urban development under control in French Guiana in Latin America.

Urban restructuring projects
These have been located in blighted urban neighbourhoods that have suffered from economic and social decline as well as disorganised infrastructures. Restoring them to health requires in-depth urban regeneration programmes focused on both housing (to achieve the right balance in terms of social integration) and on economic development.
The following urban development corporations (EPAs) are managing these new urban restructuring projects, in areas destined to become key poles of regional development:

• The Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Euroméditerranée, a project to restructure the urban space in and around the port of Marseille and to restore the city to its former status as a major maritime link between Europe and the Mediterranean;


• The Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Le Mantois Seine-Aval, a project to upgrade urban space in Mantes-en-Yvelines, whose neighbourhoods featuring large social housing estates have all been adversely affected by unemployment, social exclusion and urban blight;


• The Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Seine-Arche, a project to restructure a three square kilometre area situated between the river Seine and the Grande Arche de la Défense in Nanterre near Paris;


• The Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Plaine de France, a project to restructure 30 municipalities, whose continuous urbanisation has extended across a territory situated between Plaine-Saint-Denisat the gates of Paris to Roissy in Seine-Saint-Denis and Val d’Oise counties.


• The Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Nord-Isère

Public land control corporations

• The Paris Area Land and Technical Agency (L’Agence Foncière et Technique de la Région Parisienne or AFTRP), which covers the whole of the Paris Ile-de-France region.


• The Public Land Control Corporation for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region (the Etablissement Public Foncier Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur or EPF PACA), established to keep control over urban development in this region, where the supply of land has been under considerable pressure.


• Normandy’s public land-management corporation, founded in 1968 as the Etablissement public de la Basse-Seine (EPBS) which has gradually broadened from the Basse-Seine region to include both Haute Normandie and Basse Normandie.


• Lorraine’s public land management corporation, founded in 1973 to recover sites which have fallen into decay due to the far-reaching industrial and urban changes which have shaken Lorraine over the last two decades.


• West Rhône Alpes region’s public land management corporation, founded in 1998 to carry out deliberate policies to recover damaged industrial and rural areas in this region marked by a succession of industrial crises : textiles, mines, steel making, armaments, etc.


• Nord-Pas de Calais region’s public land-management corporation, founded in 2002 is empowered to purchase land and property on behalf of any public body for the purpose of establishing land reserves or carrying out planning and development actions or operations.


• Land-banking agency of La Réunion, founded in 1990 to facilitate town planning and development and, particularly, to recycle brown fields and the surrounding areas in the whole region’s territory.

Sogaris, a logistics company

• SOGARIS builds and operates multimodal logistical hubs in Rungis, Roissy, Lyon, Marseille, etc.

Public-private development partnerships

• SEMAPA (Société d'Économie Mixte d'Aménagement de Paris Rive Gauche)
• SERL (Société d'Equipement du Rhône et de Lyon)
• SERM (Société d'Équipement de la Région Montpelliéraine)

French scientific and technical centre for the building industry

• CSTB