Beziers–22 St Jaques
property details & discussions
for a Hub House co-operative coliving project

Environment ✧ beaches 30mins bus, rolling vineyards, coastal plains, (rocky massif)

Services ✧ all

Access ✧ station 10mins walk, direct to Barcelona 2h15, Paris 4h; airport 30mins shuttle, plus many other airports (CDG direct)

Property ✧ garden is ranked good because whilst the property may have limited outdoor spaces, the town has many
✦ the interesting part of this is a seperate building at the back that will hang over a new public garden and could be given an impressive roof terrace looking over most of the town
✦ being sold with others on behalf of the town as part of area redevelopment
✦ was a very rundown neighborhood however this location is its very tip, and whilst many of the surrounding streets have been tidied up it is right next to where the 'arabs and gypsies' live however I find this lends life and in any case means there's a choice of local shops
✦ a large number of adjacent buildings were demolished leaving land directly onto the back of the building due to be transformed into a public garden, with a remaining large block also due for demolishment to be replaced by a modern apartment building, the one that seems to have had approval towers over the east of the building, however looks quite interesting is partly open to the south, and low to west thus not blocking the cathedral view (3d view, publicity leaflet, website); regrettably it does not fully utilise the potential promenade with views over the walls, retaining it as a road rather than pedestrianising, and has limited commercial spaces that would be an excellent location for a coworking…
✦ this means there will be significant neighbouring construction works for probably a year or so from somepoint not too distant; given the high value of the project (a singular location having views) its likely to be swift though one plan involved an underground carpark below the garden which would be rather significant
✦ just on the next lane there's another public square in the ruins of the old roman arena, and another in front of the church with views over the walls
✦ tax is expensive: €5k/year
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✦ to function as satellite with perhaps extra dorm beds for stopovers journeying between locations; the town has no coworking, so if there's enough space it would do well to host a few locals for occasional drop-in days as a mini-hub, a floor of rear building for coworking would accommodate this, in an ideal world one of the commercial spaces in the new block would be a coworking
✦ probably 6 bedrooms though may not be ensuite, plus good dorm, common spaces may only be ground and rear building though likely adequate for a capacity of about 10
✦ average month stake would be under €3.5k though ⅓ of the monthly costs would be tax however little heating is needed so still pretty good
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✦ as building is an approachable height works should not be hard even with new floors for the rear building
✦ roof seems fine; interior is solid but in poor state with all infra likely requiring replacing, which is fine for refitting, might be partly usable with nominal effort
✦ original parcel 1065, 205m2, but renumbered
✦ 95m2 streetfront building with 6 juliet balconies and two large street openings either side of the door; split in 2 at the rear and probably also in the front
✦ probably 80m2 usable *4 =320 +60
✦ 17m2 courtyard
✦ 35m2 seperate building at back, with cellars, 1 floor (currently inaccessible), plus attic that could be opened as roof terrace with pergolas and fab view across to cathedral being one of the highest rooftops around (except for future apartment building), there's quite a bit of south-east walls which would probably be kept providing shelter from the sun and privacy from the apartment building; if the first floor is raised slightly this would essentially give two floors (probably coworking and a lounge) instead of cellars and interconnecting with the main building
✦ 25m2 courtyard could open onto public garden or be part covered with another roof terrace
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✦ there are some restoration requirements however these are fairly minor except for demolishing the rear buildings to seperate the outermost part of the parcel for the garden, which has already been done, with buttresses erected in the garden to support it