Playing the New Game of Paris Monopoly: Buying Up La Jeune Rue

The hippest part of town is about to get hipper. Last week I wrote about the Haut Marais, the part of town I’ve lived in almost 17 years. I’ve watched it grow up from the infancy of shabbiness to being too chic for its own britches. Now, it’s about to get even hipper, not organically, but by a French real estate “savant” (as Jay Cheshes called him in his article in the Wall Street Journal — Cédric Naudon.

I wandered down rue Vertbois on Tuesday on route to meeting with one of our apartment owners on rue Volta, just near the corner of those two streets. It’s a neighborhood we’ve been watching change rapidly the last few years and have helped three clients buy property there. The restaurants along rue Vertbois were uniformly shut tight, their windows frosted with whitewash and it seemed as if the whole street was under construction. No wonder — this is all part of Naudon’s plan for the “quartier.”

Naudon is a young (42 year-old) real estate mogul who made his fortune in the U.S. and has bright ideas and a big plan. “La Jeune Rue” (Young Street) is his brainchild to transform the area into “an epicurean village” by buying up properties (up to 45 so far) and transforming them into a ‘smörgåsbord’ of food-related establishments. His “buying spree” wasn’t originally by design, but has turned into a history-making venture and an experiment in urban renewal.

Naudon is rubbing elbows with Paris’ most influential to make his project happen. According to L’Express Styles he’s movin’ and shakin’ with the likes of new Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, designer Philippe Starck and chef Alain Ducasse. His new and somewhat crazy project is bringing together the best of international designers and creators. One by one the shop owners have succumbed to Naudon’s seductive ways — to the point where even Chez l’Ami Louis may have to cave in.

Some are calling La Jeune Rue the new Disneyland for Bobos (bourgeois + bohemian — a member of a social class of well-to-do professionals who espouse bohemian values and lead bourgeois lives). The streets of this new little village centered between Place de la République and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers are comprised of rue du Vertbois, rue Volta and rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth. The new shops and restaurants will offer everything from fish to cheese: “poissonnerie, épicerie, fromagerie, boucherie, pâtisserie, glacier” — and all types of gastronomic artisans such as bistrots, oyster bar, indoor market, hardware, etc. The shops and restaurants will be opening one by one, with 36 planned, providing more than 250 new jobs.

Naudon is already planning project number two on the left bank. His game of Monopoly in the 3rd district is costing about 30 million euros — about one-third of which is his own money and the rest from three banks. His own money is a result of a chain of successful design concept stores in the U.S. With his transformation of this district, it is an area of the city you should be buying into, too. No doubt, the value of real estate in that little corner is sure to increase and our current owners there are already smiling big!

I suspect there will be more Naudon’s on the horizon from which France will benefit. I predict that when the next administration swings to the political right, the French who left for the U.S. and other economic Edens these past few years will decide to return to their homeland to make a difference. They will be armed with their newly-made money, their new ideas and newly-acquired industrious attitudes learned in those more capitalistic societies. And they will want to pump their money and their energy into making France the strong and great nation it truly deserves to be.

Call me an optimist, but mark my words: Naudon is a sign of the future of France.

A bientôt and Happy Labor Day!

Adrian Leeds

Director of The Adrian Leeds Group, LLC

(Photo by Theo Robinson)

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P.S. Guests staying in any of our luxurious Parler Paris Apartments or Parler Nice Apartments who are considering the purchase of their own “pied-à-terre” can book a FREE one-hour consultation with me. Simply fill out our Consultation Request Form and we’ll schedule a meeting in person or by phone/Skype.