Nhood, a new real estate operator to create better places
Better places: it is the motto of Nhood, a newly created mixed real estate operator. Its mission is to help property owners regenerate and transform sites into better places to live in the ten European countries it will operate in, with a particular focus on environmental sustainability and health and wellness.
Nhood is owned by Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM) and Etienne Dupuy, former senior director at Invesco Real Estate France, has been appointed managing director. He will be responsible for implementing the management and investment strategy and coordinating the teams in the ten different countries.
‘We plan to regenerate each site sustainably and responsibly, improving the residents’ living environment by designing lively and well-connected neighbourhoods’, said Dupuy. ‘We’re committed to being inclusive, consulting and listening to local people’.
The initial portfolio comprises 300 commercial sites to be transformed and regenerated in Europe, 76 of which in France, with a value of over €8 billion. The development potential is over 4 million square metres, one-third of which is residential, with 30,000 housing units in 40 projects.
The first projects in 2021 are the railway station neighbourhood in Vigo, Spain, transformed by the addition of a shopping centre and a public square as a meeting place; the Coresi quarter in Brasov, Romania, a 120 hectare regeneration project that takes up 10% of the city with offices, shops and green spaces; and the La Maillerie in Villeneuve d’Ascq in France, that will be transformed from an industrial wasteland into a vibrant mixed-use district.
The creation of Nhood, short for neighbourhood, was announced by its chairman Antoine Grolin. ‘We’re going to create mixed-used places that revolutionize the city and retail, designing these places to have a triple positive impact on Planet, People, Profit’, he said.‘Setting up as a real estate services company is a sizeable advantage, because we’re more agile and stay as close as possible to the grassroots’.
Grolin is also chairman of Ceetrus, chairman and founder of Nodi and family partner and member of the AFM Board. Nhood will act on behalf of the sites’ owners like Ceetrus and Nodi, AFM companies like Décathlon, Auchan and Leroy Merlin and partners like Morgan Stanley Italy and Pharos Real Estate Fund.
