AG Real Estate France delivers the Marceau building in Bas-Montreuil: 8,900 m² of new offices in a real island of freshness

Located between Rue Marceau and Rue Robespierre, the site, once entirely mineral, now gives way to 2,600 m² of outdoor spaces including 1,400 m² of garden, 1,320 m² of open ground and 1,200 m² of terraces accessible on each floor. The landscaping work designed by AZC and carried out alongside an ecologist, favours local species and includes wildlife-friendly facilities (shelters, nesting boxes, adapted lighting). Rainwater is collected and infiltrated to the plot.

Thanks to this approach, the site’s urban heat island (UHI) score decreases by 25%, bringing the plot closer to a “park-garden” type of operation.

In an urban fabric, this transformation constitutes a concrete climatic contribution for the district, beyond the perimeter of the building, which will benefit from a unique green working environment for its users.

The AZC agency organized the project around an east-west pedestrian path crossing the plot, linking Robespierre and Marceau streets. This green passage structures the layout of the building, orients the offices towards qualitative views of the gardens and thus creates natural ventilation thanks to the island.

The central segment of the plot ensures continuous north-south transparency. The façade combines an exposed concrete structure and wooden joinery. On the top levels, two external staircases connect the office floors to the large private terraces.

“We designed Marceau around passages and transparencies linking the building, the garden and the neighbourhood. The simplicity of the structure and the robustness of the materials — concrete and wood — guarantee the durability of the building in the heterogeneous fabric of Bas-Montreuil,” says Grégoire Zundel, associate architect at AZC.

Marceau is part of the rise of Bas-Montreuil as a tertiary alternative to eastern Paris, 5 minutes from the ring road, a seven-minute walk from the RER A Vincennes, and close to metro lines 1 and 9. The district, already animated by a diversity of private, public and semi-public actors, combines a lively suburban fabric with a village spirit (housing, local shops, varied catering and cultural offerings) and a competitive rental positioning compared to Paris intra-muros.

The building offers 1,700 m² floors divisible by half-level, the possibility of operation in one or two independent buildings, and 860 workstations with a total capacity on five levels and a garden level. On the ground floor, a 250 m² cafeteria, a meeting room and two shops on the street open up to the district. The garden level hosts a multipurpose ERP space for 199 people and a fitness area.

The structural framework has also been designed to offer, in the long term, heritage optionality: indeed, if uses evolve in the coming decades, the common denominator of building thicknesses and vertical circulations would make it possible to envisage a transformation towards residential with a minimum of additional grey energy.

“Marceau is thought of as an asset rooted in its territory. The requalification of this brownfield site into a new building, largely planted with plants and open to the district, illustrates our way of approaching tertiary development: quality of use for occupants, measurable contribution to the urban environment, and integration into the local fabric. It is also an asset designed to cross cycles: the structural design incorporates from the outset the optionality necessary to adapt the building to the uses of tomorrow, which we believe is an essential component of long-term heritage value,” says Arnaud Guennoc, Managing Director and Head of Development France of AG Real Estate.

Project Name: Marceau

Development and investment: AG Real Estate France

Promotion: Marignano

Architecture / Landscape: AZC

Design / execution project mastery: TEC

Notary: GMH – Olivier Herrnberger and Virginie Blanc
Marketers: BNP Paribas Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE

Artist: Keen Souhlal

Environmental / Ecological Consultant: MOMENTUM

Address: 89, rue Robespierre, 93 100 Montreuil / 94 bis rue Marceau, 93100 Montreuil

Program: offices (total capacity: 860 R+4 workstations on the garden level)

Area: 8,700 m² of office space and 200 m² of retail space

Outdoor spaces: 2,600 m² in total including 1,400 m² of garden, 1,320 m² of open ground, 1,200 m² of terraces accessible on each floor

Reception areas and services: the programme includes a 250 m² cafeteria, two shops overlooking the street, a modular multi-purpose space that can accommodate up to 199 people (ERP), a meeting room centre and a 200 m² fitness area.