Galivel & Associés

Following in the footsteps of GOLDBECK, which acquired 100% of its equity in March 2019, GSE is introducing its car park offering in France. The strategy is “legitimate and logical”, GSE’s management points out, given the parent company’s experience in car parks (nearly 1,000 projects in Europe) and the opportunities of the French market, one of Europe’s most advanced. France has 2.7 million regulated parking spaces in cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, including 1.3 million paying spaces – 50% in buildings and 50% in the street – spread over nearly 600 municipalities.

 

City centre underground car parks currently face a decline in use, due in particular to unfavourable development policies and the pressure put on the use of private cars in urban areas. This has led to a revolution – in which GSE wishes to participate – aiming to provide an efficient service that improves the quality of life in towns and cities. The goal is for these car parks, unlike conventional parking, to become new urban interfaces and genuine hubs of mobility.

 

As the development of public transport increases the need for multimodal approaches for both companies and users, these car parks offer an ideal solution.

 

Long denounced as eyesores, multistorey car parks have become symbols of this ongoing revolution. GSE offers comfortable, smart and sustainable solutions that make mobility simple. Offering countless architectural design options, these car parks integrate the sector’s new technologies, guaranteeing maximum quality and safety: guidance to free spaces, digital management, access control by number plate recognition, smart lighting, dynamic signposting, etc. In addition, their carbon footprint is 20% smaller than standard solutions on the market.

 

“The future starts today,” said Roland Paul, Chairman of GSE. “Advances in travel and in the energy transition are significantly influencing and changing our lives, our mobility, and therefore parking. This is why we want to offer smart, flexible and scalable parking solutions that provide considerable leeway for action.”

 

These new facilities are also a resource in the face of the challenges of urban land scarcity and the need for more flexible and evolving solutions.

In France, GSE has identified several sectors of activity with real needs and providing great opportunities for multistorey car parks: hospitals, park & ride sites, as well as businesses and industrial sites with an interest in seamless, intermodal urban mobility. GSE’s knowledge of the field and the global approach of its multidisciplinary experts (architects, engineers, concrete, steel and façade specialists), combined with the experience of GOLDBECK, a leader in the field of multistorey car park design & build, enable the company to imagine optimal solutions, customised, functional and competitive.

 

Thanks to its industrialised production process, based on fully prefabricated, ready-to-assemble elements, GSE can present a particularly competitive offer, at prices between €7,000 and €10,000 per space, on a turnkey basis. By way of comparison, the cost of a “traditional” parking space on the French market averages around €12,000. This industrialised and integrated manufacturing process also enables outstandingly short deployment times.

 

The steel, concrete and aluminium construction elements are manufactured in the Group’s own factories, always under the same conditions. “This guarantees that our products and projects remain at a consistently high level of quality, at the best price. Thanks to optimal logistical planning, we eliminate all intermediate storage & handling. All the components fit together perfectly, so our teams can assemble them on site easily,” said Maxime Ochin, Multistorey Car Park Director at GSE.

 

This also enables the facilities to minimise their carbon footprints.

 

From GSE’s perspective, these solutions must meet prior specifications, which list the expectations both in terms of use and construction (source of materials, handling of construction-related waste, LED lighting, lifts, solar panels, ventilation, aesthetics).

 

There’s much on offer. The “extras” demonstrate the diversity of these multistorey car parks, true hubs of mobility where bicycles, scooters, motorbikes and cars coexist. Facilities now include parking areas for two-wheelers, charging stations for electric vehicles, parcel lockers (for last-mile logistics) and why not the opening – in the near future – of retail premises on the ground floor, or even coworking, restaurant, seminar or exhibition spaces, not to forget many related amenities (car wash, lockers, etc.).

 

GSE, which will also be offering an extended range of services via its Parking Services subsidiary (maintenance and upkeep), wants these easily accessible multistorey car parks to be bright and equipped with an intuitive guidance system to maintain a sense of security. In short, the whole facility should adapt to the user and blend in with the urban environment.