Posted Sep 28, 2022, 7:15 PM
This will probably be Cataroux’s most emblematic project carried by Michelin. At this stage, it is in any case the least advanced. “We have validated the concept which will be articulated around sport, health, tourism, integration and culture”, indicates Pascal Couasnon, the program manager. A symbol of the site’s industrial past, the tracks on which tires were once tested will therefore become a mecca for leisure and above all for sport and health, the spearhead of which will be a “City of Movement”. A concept that Michelin says is “unpublished” and that it wants to be duplicated in other parts of the planet.
The idea is to create a place to make the general public aware of the benefits of physical activity for healthy living. This project mobilizes several partners, in particular the University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand, but also the ASM (the Montferrand Sports Association, which notably houses the Clermont rugby team), with a great intention: that this city of movement be in sport -health what the Cité de la Villette, which inspired him to build his concept, is to industry.
Search for partners
For the time being, the development of these ten hectares still requires a few adjustments. On the one hand because it is necessary to deal with the famous tracks, installations listed as “remarkable buildings”, which will become the emblem of the City of Movement. On the other hand, because this part of the Cataroux project should mobilize at least a good hundred million euros of investment.
As on the rest of the project, Michelin and the public authorities will put their hands in the wallet to boost the project but, here too, the search for private partners is in progress in order to bring activities carrying an economic model capable of attract some 300,000 visitors a year. The first occupant is known: it is the Aventure Michelin, the museum retracing the history of the company, which will be set up at the foot of the slopes. Its move is planned by 2025, when the opening of this entire part of the Cataroux project is announced.
What benchmarks in a constantly changing world?
Political uncertainties, scientific innovations, war in Ukraine, energy and ecological transition… How to understand these changes? How to position yourself? Every day, the 200 journalists from the “Echos” editorial staff help you decipher economic, political and international news through surveys, analyses, press reviews, chronicles and editorials. Our subscribers know that they can rely on these resources to better navigate our complex environment and make the best strategic decisions.
