As one of the choicest pieces of development real estate in the region, if not in Europe, the so-called ‘golden rectangle’, centered on Geneva International Airport and sitting astride the Franco-Swiss border, has just received the green light for serious new development proposals.

The Franco-Geneva Regional Committee is making development of the zone one of its priorities. The committee consists of representatives from Geneva and the two French departments bordering the Golden Rectangle.

Bernard Weil, who is in charge of the Golden Rectangle project in the Committee and is responsible for co-ordinating efforts among the Geneva and French authorities as well as private consultants, says ‘This development will give breathing space for Geneva and stimulate welcome economic development throughout the region. This is a complex long-term project that will embrace the Palexpo exhibition halls, the business centre, the Arena concert hall, congress halls as well as the CERN site. Whilst on the Geneva side, there has already been considerable development, on the French side, there have been few.’

Bernard Weil defines four programmes designed to enhance the Golden Rectangle: improve the services sector of the airport with hotels and shopping complexes, attract companies, attract NGOs to offer a kind of counter-balance to traditional international Geneva, and to develop the projected ‘Science City’ at CERN.

Under study since 1997, the major orientations for the development will be identified by the end of summer 2001 when they can then be presented to private investors and form the object of a major public information campaign.

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