Lille Europe: A Success Story?

Development of high-speed train station areas can provide an economic impulse to a city. The
station area around Lille Europe, Euralille, is probably the project that is most often put forward
as an example thereof. In reality the station area is not the success many people consider it to be,
au contraire. The offices are rented out for a bargain, the housing areas are not very popular, and
the Euralille shopping centre is suffering from a low number of visitors. How did this happen?
And why is there such a large gap between the actual success of the station area and the image of
success? What can we learn from the success story of Lille and the failure of the station area?