Illustrated here in computer graphics, is what the new Thales industrial campus in Merignac, near Bordeaux, will look like in just 18 months’ time. The foundation stone of this gigantic project has just been laid. The overall 55,000 m2 (592,000 sq. feet) complex, includes six office buildings, interconnected by a common ground floor, another, accommodating meeting rooms, a showroom, together with the corporate restaurant, and lastly, the technical equipment building.
By April 2017, this 16 hectare (40 acre) campus, dubbed Air'Innov, will accommodate the aerospace group’s 2,000 employees, today located on the two other Bordeaux (Pessac and Le Haillan), specialized radar and avionics sites. 400 other Thales employees, currently located in the Paris region (Velizy), should also be moving to the R & D (Research and Development) campus.
This will be a 200 million euro strategic showcase for Thales, with which the group intends to increase its competitiveness. An ''innovation centre'' is to be created, and as for the site, it has not been chosen at random, since it is located right on the doorstep of the major sub-contractors to their customers, Dassault Aviation, Airbus Defence & Space, and Sabena Technics.
