Give me a high-speed rail station, or nothing!" How private stakeholders consider investing in the high-speed rail station's area in shrinking cities: The case of Saint-Étienne (France)

Abstract

Based upon a case-study in a post-industrial city (Saint-Etienne, France), this paper discusses the relationship between a central high-speed rail (HSR) station and urban regeneration in shrinking cities. Thanks to a qualitative approach, it analyses what precisely in an HSR station is attractive to real estate developers in a reputedly unattractive city. The outcome of this survey is that the HSR station is a multi-facetted asset that helps to convince every private stakeholder the real estate developer has to deal with. The central HSR station is a three-fold asset thanks to its connectivity, urbanity and centrality qualities, but also thanks to the branding effect of the HSR itself in France. The value of the station as a whole exceeds the sum of the values of its sides. The HSR station is then a necessary - although not sufficient - condition to engage real estate action in cities with a poor reputation as it helps to equalize the risk taken by private stakeholders in places they would not have considered as an option otherwise.