Senator-mayor Jacques Peyrat claimed he was in favour of 10,000 further m2, providing the extension is made without touching the Lattre De Tassigny esplanade.
Can Nice-Acropolis be extended ? Its competitors have already done it. Last year, Cannes opened the Riviera space, the extension of the Palais des Festivals. On July 20th, Monaco will inaugurate its Grimaldi Forum. Since the strong resumption of the congress activities, in 1998, Nice has been experiencing the need to increase the size of an exhibition centre that was launched 15 years ago. The figures of 1999 strengthen it : 135 events and 495,000 visitors, spectators or congressmen, a 121 million franc turnover, while the year 2000 promises to be definitely exceptional.
Faced with the request for extension led by Jean Guillon, Senator-mayor Jacques Peyrat did not say he disagreed. However, he had a sizeable reserve. He claimed he was in favour of the extension plan, even in the most expensive version that had been retained by the Centre of Advanced Strategy, in its feasibility study (200 million francs for 10,000 further square metres). But money will be released only if a way is found to make the extension, without touching the Lattre De Tassigny esplanade. It is exactly the space between Acropolis and the exhibition centre, that the extension was likely to bring together…
For the senator-mayor, the esplanade is particularly essential in case a plan to avoid accidents might be launched. And he recalled such a plan could have been needed, few days ago, when a gas pipe broke, in the Ile de Beauté square. But, out of the Lattre De Tassigny esplanade, the extension of the centre depends on the squaring of the circle…