In the Helios Apartments on Rue Honoré near Jardins d’Apolline there have also been water leaks and problems with damp. Fortunately, the problem has been caught earlier in the cycle and an agreed plan of attack underway.
It is mainly in the bathrooms where the leaks originate. So that requires uncovering the pipe fittings in the concrete below the floors. There are twenty-nine apartments overall affected and they will be tackled typically six at a time. The bathrooms will have to renovated and made new which will take about two months for each set of six. Albert Croesi, is in charge from the Government, and oversees solving the situation. The plan is well advanced to relocate the residents while the work goes on. This will be in seven apartments kept especially for this purpose in the West of Monaco. The Helios apartments were delivered only five years ago in 2013 and Satri the company responsible is redoing the bathrooms at their own expense. In some of the apartments there has been some infiltration of rain via poorly sealed windows. This is being tackled at the same time.
29 apartments to do in all, two months for each set of six. Everything should be made good by early on in 2019.
Meanwhile, Jardins d’Apolline is a different kettle of fish and has required a much bigger intervention to fix the water infiltration there. Every cloud has a silver lining and, in the case of Jardins d’Apolline forty-five to fifty new apartments will be added during the renovations. This is in accordance with the green light given by Prince Albert to raise the height there by two stories to create the new space. Fixing the water infiltration and creating the new apartments takes about three years for all four blocks. The work has been well underway on blocks Band D since February.
The rehousing of the residents during the work is a project in itself. In two of the blocks, B and D, about a third have been rehoused in rental apartments traditionally reserved for Monegasques, and another third in private apartments in Monaco. The remaining third required an assortment of private arrangements. Just sixteen families now remain for their specific rehousing to be made definitive. During the refit there is an opportunity to make some custom improvements for the residents – a small recompense for all the disruption in their lives. So Albert Croesi is overseeing a plan that includes requests for showers instead of baths in some cases or, for example, a more open kitchen – small improvements of that ilk. For the other two blocks, A and C the rehousing will typically be in private apartments. Nearly every family will go back to the comfort of their original apartment when the renovations are completed. There are businesses to be taken care of too, all of which is being attended to, case by case. For example, the Dance School will permanently relocate.
The planned result of all this hard work after 36 months is for the families to be back in comfort in their original apartments and up to 50 new apartments to be available – also for Monegasques.
