“The Games are slowly and concretely coming to life…” This Thursday morning, the President of the Republic will travel to Seine-Saint-Denis to inaugurate the Olympic and Paralympic Games athletes’ village.
At the same time, Solideo, project manager of the site, will hand over the keys of the premises to the Organizing Committee (COJOP) to begin the configuration of the place under the sign of the rings...
This will be Emmanuel Macron's second official visit to the site after that in October 2021 at the start of construction.
A trip under the sign of “French pride”.
“First of all, there is the pride that France is a nation of builders which will have renovated Notre-Dame in five years and which is capable of delivering this impressive Olympic village on time,” we whisper from the side of the 'Elysium.
Then, pride that France can deliver a real open-air manifesto for the low-carbon city of tomorrow.
Finally, the pride of an operation which aims to reflect the image of the Games, that is to say useful and committed.
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The President of the Republic will be accompanied, among others, by three ministers (Christophe Béchu for ecological transition, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra for sports and Guillaume Kasbarian minister delegate in charge of housing), local and regional elected officials concerned by the project, Tony Estanguet (president of COJOP), Astrid Guyart (general secretary of CNOSF), Marie-Amélie Le Fur (president of CPSF) or even a few athletes who will be able to see part of their dream take shape.
A budget of around two billion euros
At this stage, there will be no representatives from the International Olympic Committee.
They will be present next July in another sequence, that of the official opening of the village to delegations.
Emmanuel Macron, the day after his dinner with around fifteen French athletes, will take advantage of his morning to discuss with developers, project managers and architects but also with the employees, workers and companions of duty mobilized (up to 3,700 in simultaneous).
And greet local residents whose daily lives may have been impacted by some nuisances.
“Through his stroll, the president would like to thank all those who allowed us to accomplish this challenge, to achieve it and thus allow us to be so proud of this achievement,” insists those around him.
The public authorities invested 646 million euros to build the heart of the Games (542 million for the state, the rest distributed between the Île-de-France region, the town halls concerned, the departmental council, the Paris town hall and the Metropolis of Greater Paris).
By adding all private developers, the budget amounts to around 2 billion euros.
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The subject of the legacy of the Games will not be specifically addressed… since it is already known.
The “Olympic” buildings near the Seine, straddling Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and Île Saint-Denis, will be transformed into 2,800 housing units and various services.
Next fall, after the last Paralympic lights go out, Solideo will undertake reversibility work to make everything available to promoters.
The first tenants will follow in the footsteps of the athletes in the summer of 2025. But that's another story...