Le Figaro Lyon
A rather peculiar file arrived on the desk of the investigators of the judicial police of Lyon. The Lyon prosecutor's office has just opened an investigation for "favoritism" in the award of the To-Lyon Tower site to Vinci. A decision that follows the report of the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) published on September 25. The magistrates questioned the agreements made in 2016 between the construction giant and the Metropolis of Lyon, then chaired by Gérard Collomb, via its SPL (local public company) Lyon Part-Dieu.
The authority was particularly interested in the development of the "To-Lyon" tower, a vast public-private real estate project including, in addition to the tower to be delivered by Vinci at the end of 2023, car parks and the restructuring of the forecourt of the district station. The CRC is surprised to see Vinci, through its subsidiary SCCV To-Lyon, also responsible for the construction of the Place Béraudier car park, opposite the station and where a low-level square of several levels is to be built in 2025. She notes that the company's choice "lacked transparency in a highly competitive sector".
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'Lack of transparency'
The Chamber also considers "that the sale of the lower place (...) was carried out under legally questionable conditions, the work having been designed by the public authority and for the satisfaction of its needs". While the CRC acknowledges that the "To-Lyon" operation was based on co-construction with a private investor, it also stresses that "it is no less questionable since part of the works is intended to be useful to the community". The second business district of France, Part-Dieu, located in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon, is currently the scene of a dozen projects to make its concrete spaces in greener areas by 2029.
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Contacted by AFP, the Metropolis of Lyon, chaired since 2020 by the ecologist Bruno Bernard, did not wish to comment. Gérard Collomb, 76, socialist mayor of Lyon from 2001 to 2017 then LREM from 2018 to 2020, had led the public authority from 2015 to 2017. His lawyer, Richard Zelmati, told AFP on Saturday that his client's health did not allow him to answer questions from the press for the time being. The former Lyon mayor had supported Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 presidential election and then served as Minister of the Interior for a year (2017-2018).