History

Rue de la République: history

Since the 19th century, Rue de la République has been one of Lyon's main shopping streets and the main thoroughfare in the Presqu’île district between the Saône and Rhône rivers. It lies at the heart of Lyon's historic centre, which was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.

It is well served by public transport, and the section between Place Bellecour and Place des Cordeliers is a pedestrian zone. It is home to many retail chains and high-quality shops.

ANF's properties are mostly mixed-use buildings built during France's Second Empire, built on either side of the "Rue Impériale". The construction of this street, in an area that was previously a maze of impractical and insalubrious alleys, formed part of the ambitious urban modernisation policy adopted by Napoleon III. Each Haussmann-style building usually has a ground-floor shop often connected to a mezzanine floor and one or two floors of offices, with the rest used as residential space.

In addition to these properties, ANF owns a 63.45% stake in SGIL (Société de Gestion Immobilière Lyonnaise), which owns 4 buildings on Cours Gambetta and an apartment in a block on Rue Dunoir. These high-quality properties are almost exclusively residential, and have total usable floorspace of 10,557 sq. m.