Gecina : Paris&Co and Gecina set up the Welcome City Lab in Tours Gamma

2,000 sq.m renovated and redeployed to support entrepreneurial innovation

Paris, July 7, 2016 - For the Welcome City Lab's third anniversary, and to support its development, Paris&Co has just set up its dedicated tourism innovation platform in its new offices, inaugurated this morning in Tours Gamma (Paris 12th), with over 2,000 sq.m of space. This facility has been able to be launched thanks to a unique partnership with Gecina, the market leader for urban offices in Paris. Initially vacant, the fully renovated premises will be home to all of the Welcome City Lab's activities from today (incubation, testing, business intelligence and academy). Through this original partnership, Paris&Co and Gecina are confirming their plans to reposition the city and its unexploited assets at the heart of innovation.

Paris&Co and Gecina: flexibility at the heart of a win-win partnership

Located on the 11th and 13th floors of one of the Tours Gamma towers, close to Gare de Lyon train station, this new 2,000 sq.m space, devoted exclusively to the Welcome City Lab, has been renovated by Gecina to bring stakeholders together and promote creation at the heart of the Innovation Arch hub, aiming to ensure the dynamic development of sectors in Eastern Paris.

This partnership is based on providing temporary access to two office platforms with space for over 40 startups. This flexible, innovative solution is aligned with the specific needs of the growing number of entrepreneurs (short-term visibility and flexible commitments), as well as Gecina's plans to capitalize on these spaces and support the creation of innovative businesses in Paris.

Through this partnership with Paris&Co, Gecina is confirming its positioning to promote agile real estate, reinventing the city, by not only redeploying spaces in transition within its portfolio, but also harnessing them to support creation and innovation.

'This partnership is fully in line with our research into new uses and new ways of using workspaces. This initiative, which offers a perfect response for the flexibility required by businesses, will feed into our approach for innovation serving our customers', explains Philippe Depoux, Gecina's Chief Executive Officer.

'This large-scale experimental initiative will enable us to confirm a new approach for the development of our future innovation programs', explains Loïc Dosseur, Co-Managing Director of Paris&Co.