The polycentric Lille metropolitan area, in the northern part of France, is easily connected with important international cities, such as Paris, London and Brussels. In this metropolitan area interesting experiences have been run of centralized retail management, partly referred to the Belgian and the English experiences of Town Centre Management. The activities of centralized management, both of town centres and, specifically, of urban retail, have been implemented in the two main centres of the area - Lille and Roubaix - following different orientations. Roubaix's local commercial system has been heavily affected both by the economical crisis related to the decline of industrial activities and by the development of large suburban retail i...