A £1bn revamp of Paris’s Gare du Nord station has been abandoned after falling far behind schedule.
The project has been seven years in the making and was due to be completed in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2023, but France’s SNCF has pulled the plug after being told it will not even be ready for the the Paris Olympics a year later.
The scheme was intended to be a rival to St Pancras in London, including 200,000 sq ft of shops, 145,000 sq ft of mostly upmarket restaurants, an exhibition space and a 120,000 sq ft roof garden, as well as a gymnasium, co-working offices and a nursery.
SNCF had a 34% stake, with the rest owned by Ceetrus, a developer controlled by Gérard Mulliez, the 90-year-old French retail billionaire.
The scheme was meant to have cost £512m, but the last estimate put the cost at £1.2bn, while the completion date had slipped to 2026.
