The arrival of two first excavators, Friday December 10, Porte de Versailles, for “Some preparatory work”, before the actual start of the work in January 2022, did not begin the determination of some to prevent at all costs the construction of the very controversial Triangle tower, this pyramid of 43 floors which must rise in the south of the capital by 2026.
Monday, December 13, a collective of associations of environmental and heritage defenders, and residents, to which the Paris councilor (LFI) Danielle Simonnet joined, lodged a complaint “For the offense of granting an unjustified advantage” at the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). The administrative justice had already been seized, but, the procedure having ended short, only the penal way remained.
The debates focus on the nature of the real estate program carried by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and by the insurer Axa, and on the conditions of the signing of the contract: a construction lease for a period of some eighty years, which binds the City of Paris at the SCI Tour Triangle. According to the collective’s lawyer, Louis Cofflard, the project, consisting mainly of offices (around 75,000 square meters out of a total area of 95,000 square meters) but which also includes equipment of public interest, should have complied with the rules on competition.
The City has always presented this future construction as “A private project which is of general interest for Paris”, he explains. This category does not exist, but, details the lawyer, “This project responds to a development policy for the Porte de Versailles and was negotiated for the needs of the city”. As 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 once again becomes the property of the city. It’s about “Therefore good public order”, he insists.
Preliminary investigation
These same arguments had been raised before administrative justice. At the hearing, the public rapporteur spoke of a “Public works contract”, recalls Me Cofflard. But the court ruled that it is a “Private contract” and therefore declared himself incompetent. No appeal could be made, the Triangle tower benefiting from the exemptions related to the law relating to the organization of the Olympic Games, which makes it possible to speed up certain town planning procedures. A cassation appeal was lodged. But it did not pass the Council of State’s pre-sort filter. In its writings, the City has always maintained that it is about“A private project that does not fall within the scope of public procurement and the development operation”.
It was on the sidelines of this Triangle tower project that the PNF had opened, at the end of June, a preliminary investigation for “favoritism” and “concealment of favoritism”, after a report by the mayor LR of 7e district, Rachida Dati, and a complaint from the Anticor association.
This investigation, which is in progress, concerns the conditions for the award of the new operating contract for the Parc des Expositions at Porte de Versailles – in the middle of which the pyramid of Jacques Herzog is to be erected -, signed between the City of Paris and Viparis, the subsidiary of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.