Ginkgo III: The Florence project

“Everyone knows that Florence is a beautiful city, the birthplace of the Renaissance. However, it faces a significant issue,” says Guillaume Ribet, Managing Director and Partner of Ginkgo Advisors. “With 13 million tourists visiting a city of just 350,000 residents every year, housing has become a major concern. That is why we chose Florence for our next project.”

Can Europe’s neglected industrial past be transformed into thriving, sustainable communities? As cities expand, urban sprawl leads to overcrowding, pollution, and the loss of green spaces, while many old industrial sites remain abandoned. Ginkgo Advisors focuses on regenerating these areas into sustainable communities, addressing environmental, social and urban growth challenges.

Their investment philosophy is to ‘sustainably rebuild the city on the city,’ acquiring and re-developing well-located former industrial sites in European cities, “master-planning, decontaminating, and building new neighbourhoods to meet the needs of the local population,” Guillaume explains.

The Florence project became Ginkgo’s first brownfield site in Italy. Located just 15 minutes from the city centre and near Florence’s largest public park, the site, which covers eight hectares, is the former ‘Officine Grandi Riparazioni’ train depot. Ginkgo recognised the enormous potential of revitalising this part of the city and contributing to alleviating the housing issue that Florence is currently experiencing. Instead of a heavily contaminated brownfield, this new area will soon feature new residential properties, student housing, a hotel, cultural centre and shops.

Over more than a decade, Ginkgo have been raising capital for similar projects in close partnership with private and institutional investors, including the EIF and the EIB. “We’re currently managing 28 projects across Europe and are present in six European countries,” Guillaume adds.

“We want to make sure that each project is financially viable, environmentally responsible, and socially impactful,” says Guillaume. And that’s not without its challenges: In addition to environmental and financial considerations, the team has to navigate local politics and administrative hurdles as well. “There aren’t many companies willing to take all of this on. But it’s rewarding to know that, without our efforts, Florence would still be left with a neglected, polluted brownfield site a decade down the line.”