LVMH out to turn Paris attraction into theme park it hopes will be France’s second or third biggest
Bernard Arnault-led fashion giant has renewed its concession for 18-hectare park, and has plans to create a steampunk-themed amusement park
Luxury goods giant LVMH is to lead a €60 million (US$72 million) plan to turn Paris’ 157 year-old Jardin d’Acclimatation into one of France’s top three amusement parks.
LVMH, which has managed the park since 1984, holds an 80 per cent stake in a partnership with Compagnie des Alpes, a developer of theme parks and ski resorts.
Paris officials last year renewed LVMH’s concession for the 18-hectare park in the west of the city, opening the way for a renovation of the garden and its attractions. The concession contract runs for 25 years.
Work will begin on September 4 and last until May 1, 2018. There will be 17 new attractions, some of which will be themed around the steampunk genre.
Compagnie des Alpes and LVMH, controlled by billionaire Bernard Arnault, want to raise annual visitor numbers to about three million by 2025 from two million at present, which would place it behind Disneyland Paris but ahead of Parc Astérix.
In March, Arnault also unveiled plans to renovate a disused public building near his Louis Vuitton Foundation which sits next to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne, near Paris’ chic 16th arrondissement.
The Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires was built in 1972, but has been vacant since 2005, and Arnault aims to turn it into an arts and crafts centre in a €158 million revamp by renowned architect Frank Gehry.
