Paris (AFP)
The real estate company Gecina and the real estate subsidiary BNP Paribas have abandoned their joint application for the construction of the future Olympic Village of Paris-2024, leaving other groups in competition, AFP learned Friday from several sources.
"We decided not to submit an offer," confirmed Gecina in a statement sent to AFP.
The group formed by Gecina, a real estate specialist specializing in offices, and BNP Paribas was one of the potential builders selected in the spring by Solideo, the public institution responsible for overseeing the construction of Olympic venues. "The consultation continues with the other candidates" before an appointment expected in late November, confirmed the Solideo.
The market concerns two lots of land to be built in Saint-Ouen, in Seine-Saint-Denis, on the future village. In total, they represent more than 100,000 square meters of future housing and offices.
Emblem of the Olympics, the village must extend over 51 hectares straddling three communes (Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis and Ile-Saint-Denis) and will host some 15,600 athletes and their companions. After the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the buildings will be reconfigured to make way for a new neighborhood north of Paris: more than 3,000 homes and 135,000 m2 of activities (offices, shops and services), schools, sports facilities and green spaces. The construction site must start early 2021 and end early 2024.
"A lot of work has been done by Gecina and its partners," said Gecina, but "the result of this work did not meet the deadline constraints, technical, economic and financial".
BNP Paribas was unable to comment on the information immediately.
Three groups remain in the running, one of which, candidate for the two lots, is made up of two entities of the colossus of the building, Bouygues, joined to a real estate investment subsidiary of the insurer Axa.
The other two are each focused on a lot: a group dominated by the Caisse des Dépôts, financial arm of the state, and another that brings together Nexity, the leading French developer, and Eiffage, a major player in the construction industry.
© 2019 AFP