He made the crowds dream but also crystallized many critics. The ambitious project Heron Treewhich was to see the light of day in 2027 on the site of the Extraordinary Garden facing the Loire, is finally abandoned, announces this Thursday Johanna Rolland (PS), mayor of Nantes and President of Nantes Métropole. “The context of social and ecological emergency must guide all our decisions, she justifies. This choice is that of reason. »
This monumental vegetated metal structure, 35 m high, was the third stage of the major project of the Island machinery, after the elephant and the Carousel of the marine worlds. It was to be populated with mechanical creatures currently presented within the Machine Gallery. The public could have strolled from branch to branch.
The cost had gone up
Supported for a long time by the municipality of Nantes, the project was already weakened by the increase in its estimated cost, which had risen from 35 million euros to 52.4 million euros, a third of which was financed by private patrons. But that was without taking into account the recent surge in the price of raw materials and energy, which would have increased the bill by an additional 15 million euros, says Nantes Métropole. The legal arrangement, with an obligation to compete for the work, had also become more complex and was to be accompanied by another additional cost estimated at 13 million euros, indicates the community. Or a Heron Tree project now valued at some 80 million euros!
“80 million euros is too much. It is not compatible with what must be engaged, nor with what can be understood by the inhabitants. My responsibility as mayor is to have the courage to recognize that the context has changed. Who could have imagined, for example, last year, that the price of steel would rise by 56%? “Explains this Thursday Johanna Rolland. “We know that Nantes is capable of a thousand rebounds. Nantes will remain a city of artists, of culture for all. Nantes will continue to dream but, on this project, it is reason that must take precedence, ”adds the socialist mayor.
Opponents claim victory
The project was criticized both by the Nantes right and elected environmentalists. “This inevitable abandonment is good news for our territory, rejoices Julie Laernoes, EELV deputy. Ecologists have repeatedly pointed out the inconsistency of this project in the face of climatic and social emergencies. Its staggering cost, its shaky financial set-up and its obsolete vision of culture got the better of it. »
The abandonment of the Heron Tree now blurs the future of the Machines de l’île site, a tourist locomotive in Nantes, whose story was entirely focused on the perspective of the Tree. Its authors, François Delarozière and Pierre Oréfice, are due to speak on Friday. “I heard their disappointment, their anger even, which is legitimate. We are going to talk to them,” says Johanna Rolland.
As for the expenses already committed for the project, they amount to 8.5 million euros, including 6.2 million euros of public money (4.5 million euros by the metropolis and 1.7 million by the state). Half of this amount was used to build the “mechanical bestiary”, which will remain on display in a location and format to be defined.