The remaking of Casino Square
One Monte-Carlo, inaugurated in February 2019 on the site of the demolished Sporting d'Hiver, rebuilt the heart of the Golden Square as glass, greenery, and luxury retail. The controversy over what was lost still shadows what was gained.
On February 22, 2019, Prince Albert II and Princess Charlène, accompanied by Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, inaugurated One Monte-Carlo: seven buildings, 37 apartments, 24 luxury boutiques, and nine floors of offices arranged around the new Promenade Princesse Charlène, a pedestrian district of glass, vegetation, and light, steps from the casino. After four years of construction, the heart of the Golden Square had a new heartbeat.
What stood there before was the Sporting d'Hiver, a 1930s Beaux-Arts building that Prince Albert authorised the SBM to demolish in 2008. The decision was controversial from the start, protested by Monegasques attached to the old building, and the demolition went ahead in June 2015 regardless. One Monte-Carlo cannot be understood without the Sporting d'Hiver. Every new district in Monaco is also a demolition; the principality rebuilds itself the way other countries renovate rooms.
The architecture, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners with the Monegasque architect Alexandre Giraldi, made no attempt at pastiche. Monumental panes of glass, plant-covered facades, tree-lined streets: the district is unapologetically contemporary, a deliberate contrast with the Belle Époque set pieces around it. The bet was that the Golden Square's prestige could survive, and even benefit from, a modern counterpoint. The boutiques that filled the promenade, from the major luxury houses downward, suggest the bet was understood by the market.
The investment was enormous. The combined cost of creating One Monte-Carlo and transforming the Hôtel de Paris was estimated at about €600 million, one of the largest private investments in the principality's history. It bought SBM something the casino alone could not provide: a rental engine. The apartments, the boutiques, the offices turned the group's control of the square into recurring revenue, the segment that would contribute €156.5 million to the group's record 2025-2026 results.
Seven years on, the controversy has faded into the background hum of Monegasque debate, which is where controversies about buildings go to be remembered. What remains is the district itself: green, glassy, expensive, and full. Casino Square was remade once. In Monaco, it will be remade again.
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