The Hérault-based real estate company Socri Reim establishes a presence in Miami

It’s a place with a promising name. Treasure Island, located in the municipality of Miami, has attracted the Montpellier-based property company Socri Reim, led by Nicolas Chambon, who decided to find new growth opportunities abroad. Over the past three years, his company has purchased three plots of land, including two on Treasure Island, in the most Cuban of Florida cities. His ambition: to develop a cumulative turnover of 150 million over ten years through the sale of turnkey villas.

“The housing market in the United States is different from France. You don’t buy a house off-plan, but once it’s built, and even decorated,” explains the business leader, son of Henri Chambon (219th fortune in France, according to Challenges), head of the Socri Promotion holding company. “For the developer, it’s a risk that requires capital, more than in France. However, the profitability prospect is also incomparable.”

Diversifying and securing activities

To date, Socri Reim, totally independent of the family holding company in which Nicolas Chambon holds 20%, develops three shopping centers in Béziers, Nîmes and Montpellier. It also rents its premises to a Galeries Lafayette franchise, co-operated by Nicolas Chambon, in Béziers. “Commercial real estate suffered due to the pandemic last year. Our French business lost money, between 1.5 and 2 million euros. However, the accounts are positive thanks to the office space we developed in Luxembourg, on Grand’Rue,” says the Hérault-based boss, who sees his Florida project as an additional way to diversify and secure his activities. While Nicolas Chambon’s property company remains modest in terms of turnover (23 million euros in 2019), it was able to develop quickly thanks to the sale to Unibail-Rodamco of its stake in the Polygone shopping center in Cagnes-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes), which brought it some 30 million euros.

“This really enabled the launch of Socri Reim, which until then was only a service provider to the family group,” specifies Nicolas Chambon, who first considered entering commercial real estate in Florida before ultimately turning to housing. “With the pandemic, history ultimately proves us right, because many shopping centers have closed in the United States and many Americans want to come live in Florida,” he says. “Every week I receive at least one offer to buy our land. The last two are already worth 4 million euros more than what we paid for them not so long ago.”

Doubling turnover

By the time these programs are completed in ten years, Socri Reim aspires to double its turnover and reinvest the majority of the profits generated there across the Atlantic. “We are in a long-term economy where solid cash flow and bank confidence are essential,” recalls Nicolas Chambon, who, in his future projects, is accompanying, as a developer, the overhaul of the Fontvieille shopping center in Monaco. A prestigious project covering nearly 100,000 m² and won right under the nose of major players such as Klépierre and Carrefour Property.