Environmental defense associations challenge the private character of a negotiated development with the city of Paris.
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The arrival of two first wovenies, Friday, December 10, Porte de Versailles, for “some preparatory work”, before the effective start of the shipyard in January 2022, did not begin the determination of certain to prevent the cost The construction of the very controversial Tree Triangle, this 43-storey pyramid that must rise in the south of the capital by 2026.
Monday, December 13, a collective of environmental advocates and heritage advocates, and residents, to which the Paris Councilor (LFI) has joined Danielle Simonnet, sent a complaint “for offense of Granting of unjustified advantage “at the National Financial Office (PNF). The administrative justice had already been seized, but, the proceeding that has shown, only the criminal route remained.
The debates relate to the nature of the real estate program carried by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and by the AXA insurer, and on the conditions of the contract: a lease under construction lasting some eighty years , which binds the city of Paris to the SCI Tour Triangle. According to the lawyer of the Collective, Louis Cofflard, the project, composed mainly of offices (about 75,000 square meters on a total surface area of 95,000 square meters) but which also includes equipment of public interest, should have respected the rules of Competition.
The city has always presented this future construction as “a private project that has a general interest in Paris,” he explains. This category does not exist, but details the lawyer, “This project responds to a policy of development of the Porte de Versailles and has been negotiated for the needs of the city”. For proof, this contract which provides for the obligation to build the tower according to a pre-established program between the two parties. And the fact that at the end of the lease the tower becomes the property of the city. It’s “so good from the public order,” he insists.
Preliminary inquiry
These same arguments had been raised before administrative justice. At the hearing, the Public Rapporteur had talked about a “public works market”, “recalls M e Cofflard. But the Tribunal held that it is a “private contract” and therefore declared himself incompetent. No appeal could take place, the Triangle Tower with exemptions related to the Organization of the Olympic Games, which speeds up certain urban planning procedures. A cassation appeal has been formulated. But this one did not pass the state council pre-sort filter. In his writings, the city has always argued that it is a “private project that does not fall within the field of public order and the development operation”.
This is on the sidelines of this Tree Tree project that the PNF had opened, at the end of June, a preliminary inquiry for “favoritism” and “Recel of favoritism”, after a report of the Mayor LR of the 7 e Arrondissement, Rachida Dati, and a complaint deposit of the anticor association.
This investigation, which follows its course, concerns the conditions for the award of the new operating contract of the Park of the Porte de Versailles – in which the pyramid of Jacques Herzog must be erected – between the City of Paris and Viparis, the subsidiary of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.