Nice (Alpes-Maritimes). Christian Estrosi has faced the facts, the Gare du Sud has not become this ultra-trendy culinary epicenter that the municipality dreamed of in 2017… The mayor of Nice (various right) wants to bury the Halle gourmande once and for all and transform the neoclassical building influenced by Eiffel into a multidisciplinary cultural center at the start of 2026. A change of direction costing 10 million euros.
Will this new project cause fewer disappointments than the Halle gourmande which preceded it? The problems actually accumulated from the opening of the food court in 2019: low attendance, unbearable temperatures in the kiosks, strikes by restaurateurs to protest against the excessively high rents of the company Urban Renaissance, to which the town hall had entrusted a long lease for the management of the place… The City decided to close the premises in 2022 for hygiene reasons. Gruppo Iera, new lessor of Gare du Sud since 2023, has had little more success with the public with its restaurant Mediterraneandespite much less chaotic management.
Christian Estrosi intends to make a clean sweep of the past. The center’s lobby will host lectures, readings and performances. A game library will open its doors and a comic book library will complete the offerings of the Raoul Mille library, installed at the Gare du Sud since 2013. The future cultural center should also include several spaces intended for art, based on the model of the Franciscans of Deauville: an exhibition room, an art library and a Fablab (manufacturing laboratory) which will provide various digital tools, such as 3D printers, scanners and virtual reality headsets, available to the public.
These prospects, however, do not seem to be to Eric Ciotti’s taste. This is because the MP (UDR) and future candidate for the 2026 municipal elections has other plans for the Gare du Sud: he aims to install the National Theater of Nice there since 2024. Patrick Allemand, running mate of the environmentalist left in the next municipal elections, thinks that the old station should be transformed into a covered market. A subject for the next municipal elections…
