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Global approaches on the transformation of capitalism underscore the succession of distinct accumulation regimes, with the replacement of the “first track” – industry and manufacture – by a “second track” – post-Fordist financialization. Beneath these welldocumented macro-economic transformations, this article looks at their localised and historically anchored tracks by shedding light on the emergence of the real-estate development market in the greater Lille area, from the turn of the 1960s. Far from being the inevitable outcome of external pushes, this market appears to have built out of both the early investments of major members of the local industry or their successors, and the transformation of public policies at the local level. The comparison of some of these trajectories of (re)conversion into the real-estate sector, and their relative success, also underscores the instrumental role played by the positions and dispositions of these industrialists, as they determine their uneven inclination at investing in this transition.