He led Inowai. He ran real estate at Unibra. Today, Jean-Nicolas starts from scratch.

SSY      Hi Jean-Nicolas. We are in Arlon, on a project you have owned for eighteen years. Can you tell us how it started?

JNM      We bought this building in 2008 with my wife. It was purely a rental investment at the time. We bought it in two steps. First the upper floors with five small apartments. Not high-end, but it generated yield and helped us pay down the loan. Later we bought the ground floor, which used to be a restaurant before being converted into a flat.

SSY      Why the renovation now, after all these years?

JNM     Once we owned the whole building, we realized it was getting old. Structural work was needed. We could not just keep changing kitchens and bathrooms one by one. We had to go deeper. So we hired an architect and the project started from there.

SSY      The first idea was a coliving. What happened?

JNM     Yes, we wanted to do a coliving here a few years ago. It was post-Covid. We had a Teams meeting with the municipality. Honestly, it did not go well. They were not ready for that kind of project. So we sat down again with the architect, looked at our objectives with my wife, and decided to go back to a more traditional rental building.

SSY      Why three different apartment types in such a small building?

JNM     In Arlon city center, you find a lot of small low-quality apartments. Not all of them, but many. We wanted to stand out. So we decided to do three categories. A studio under the roof. A two-bedroom apartment. And a three-bedroom duplex for families, with a garden, two bathrooms, and a parental suite. That last one does not really exist in this market. I am curious to see how it performs.

SSY      Why is it important to bring families to the center?

JNM     Because mixity makes a city. If you only build small units, you only attract one type of resident. Cities need families too. That is how neighborhoods stay alive.

SSY      The entrance hall is special. You kept a reference to the old shop front?

JNM     Exactly. There used to be a shop window on the street. We had to wall it up because the street is now residential. But to keep a memory of the building’s past, the old window will be marked with a wood cladding on the facade. It is a small detail but it matters.

SSY      The ground floor and first floor are a duplex with a garden. That is rare in a city center. How did you make it work?

JNM    The original building had a huge extension that went deep into the back. It was the old commercial space. We decided to demolish it and rebuild a smaller annex. That gave us back a real garden in full ground. Today, urbanism rules don’t allow you to fill the interior of a block anymore. So bringing back the soil was the responsible thing to do.

SSY      The concrete ceiling in the living area is exposed. Was that planned?

JNM     No, it was a happy accident. When we changed the slabs, we removed the formwork and saw that the raw concrete looked beautiful. We talked with the contractor and decided to keep it. It brings something different. Then we picked a light wood that works with it. Concrete and light wood is a neutral base. People can decorate however they want.

SSY      The staircase is new but looks traditional. Why?

JNM     The original idea was to keep the old wooden staircase. But once we saw the quality level of the rest of the renovation, we decided to redo it completely. It also helps with acoustics and safety. Sometimes you have to commit fully.

SSY      You kept the front facade but rebuilt almost everything else. Why?

JNM     The municipality wanted us to keep the facade. We agreed because it gives the building its identity. But during the renovation we discovered that some elements were either not optimal or too fragile. So we rebuilt more than we initially planned. In the end, what remains is mostly the front facade and part of the back walls. Everything else is new.