Dominique Cressot
- FR
- EN
These two factors in conjunction with my passion for construction are my trademark. Throughout my carrier they have been the basis of my continuous motivation to undertake and today, alongside the hindsight of experience, are the cornerstone of my capacity to deliver.
After studying abroad with the Marists in Sub-Saharan Africa, I returned to France to finish high school.
I then spent four months working in a family masonry business in the Cévennes Region. Then I travelled through France, in the spirit of the Compagnon du Devoir, to confront the realities of the trade. This adventure lasted a little more than a year, until my call-up for the national military service.
I completed my military service in the French Navy. After an accelerated training programme provided by the Military Health Service, I left for the Ivory Coast. I spent 12 months there, including six in the bush, providing health care to indigenous people in between two reconnaissance missions.
Back in France after my military service, I enrolled in a works manager programme at the Eyrolles Paris School of Civil Engineering. I then worked for two years for a wood frame/light work business based in Carpentras in the south-eastern part of France.
I gained a newfound appreciation for the highways of the south of France, the joys of subcontracting and a yearning to explore other lands…
Club Med provides the opportunity to work under the sun. After six months of in-house training in northern Mexico, I acquired a solid background in maintenance management with a "remote island" twist, and was assigned for three consecutive seasons at the Turkoise Club Med in the Bahamas.
As Maintenance manager, I supervised 20 expats and hundreds of local staff. I had to manage 600 beds in total isolation with the vagaries of insularity and the usual budgetary constraints. A meeting with a French architect based in Mexico took my career in a different direction...
1988 - 1989
Fascinated by Mexico, I joined the JC Galibert architecture firm, who built most of the Club Med villages in France. For two years I helped them with construction management assignments and monitoring projects, carrying out studies and logistics.
Its main activity is designing dream homes on the Pacific Coast. The firm was also involved with multiple projects at the time of creating the Huatulco beach resort.
We got caught up in an unprecedented economic crisis, which sent me back to Paris, where the maturity phase started.
In the early 90s, the real estate sector was euphoric.
I rejoined the Groupe Pierre 1er as programme manager. Undertaking exciting projects, Pierre 1er specialised in the creation of prestigious office buildings with underground parking lots, a first for the time.
I stayed on six years, mainly to supervise projects in Paris until the end of the Group's activities.
The franchise market was booming. McDonald's France hired me as a construction engineer.
I discovered there a wonderful management school and a state-of-the-art industrial approach that I never would have imagined was compatible with the building industry.
I participated in the construction of 20 restaurants in Ile-de-France and the technical management of 50 others over two years.
Taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Groupe Pierre 1er, I started my own firm as Deputy Construction Manager. It operated for three years.
I participated in the creation of a restaurant concept called «Quai No. 1», dedicated to remodling buffet restaurants at train stations throughout France.
I also oversaw more traditional projects as construction manager:
The multiplication and monitoring of assignments Lone Star entrusted to me, led to my joining its operating subsidiary Hudson Advisors.
I was hired as the Head of Asset Management at Hudson Advisors France. At first my role involved successfully completing the assignments I had already started as an independent:
Above all, this period served as a springboard for a new phase of my career in expertise.
The year 2004 marked Lone Star's launch of redevelopment of the Rue de La République in Marseille. It is the largest private urban renewal project undertaken in the city centre in recent years.
I took over operational management, with all of the difficulties imaginable for a project of this scale and complexity: 130,000m² in the Marseille city centre, including 100,000m² of residential property, which was either dormant, partially occupied by tenants or being squatted.
My assignment included:
The project ended with the sale of the Marseille Republique company to Atemi in 2008.
Upon returning to Paris as a Project Manager for Centuria Capital:
an opportunity arose for the reconversion of a large stock of aging offices, where the tenants had vacated or opted to remain on the premises subject to the redevelopment works.
I was asked to fill this vacancy, ideally via relettings with future work, before the resale of the renovated properties.
Here are a few examples of assignments carried out during this period:
In addition to monitoring traditional promotional operations, Centuria Capital negotiates specific strategic consulting assignments from major international institutions that possess a heterogeneous heritage.
Thus, on two occasions I was asked to assist the Bank of the State of Azerbaijan in order to:
In early 2015, Lone Star transformed Neinor Homes, a 30-year-old firm initially dedicated to building logistics warehouses, into the leading residential real estate company in Spain.
I was called upon to ensure the operational interface between Lone Star and Neinor Homes, giving priority to the creation and supply of monitoring tools for the activity, inventory, costs, deadlines, approval for land purchases, support for the product policy and in particular the adoption of the BREEAM certification across all programmes.
On this occasion, I am overseeing two pilot projects with dedicated teams, one with 148 apartments at the north of Madrid (ATRIA Homes) and a 20-storey emblematic tower for 51 apartments in the south of Madrid (RIVERSIDE Homes).
Lone Star has acquired Vilamoura, a 1,700-hectare tourist development launched in the 1970s near Faro in the heart of the Algarve.
The project has since undergone a major development and currently encompasses the largest marina in Portugal,
5 golf courses as well as a renowned equestrian centre.
Tourist accommodation and residential housing are nevertheless disparate and ageing.
Furthermore, no additional construction work has occurred in the last 10 years.
The mission assigned to me on this occasion by Lone Star necessitates deliberation on a town scale. It involves developing a vision to awaken the sleeping beauty and harmoniously enrich the development with 5000 additional housing units while incorporating significant environmental constraints.
My proposal is a 3-point action plan:
This project has the PIN label, « Plan de Interes Nacional ».
Allianz Real Estate is the global leader in property investment.
As such, it has an operational team for Western Europe based in Paris that is responsible notably for asset management, commercialisation, CSR & ESG monitoring and of course a project management department.
I assumed the leadership of this team halfway through 2020.
My goals: ensure the management of the focused team, create links, manage priorities and establish processes adapted to the specificities of this contractor.
The perception of property holding is changing, as much in its use as in its environmental impact, regulations are becoming increasingly complex, the project management profession is undergoing a genuine revolution.
As a key player, Allianz Real Estate aims to be exemplary in terms of its carbon footprint reduction and the energy efficiency of its property assets.
This requirement – which is at the forefront of my concerns – is equally as applicable to new acquisitions as it is to the management of operations already in place.
