The Lyon public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into favoritism following the latest report from the regional chamber of accounts (CRC), pointing to a “lack of transparency” on the part of the metropolis in the choice, in 2016, of the Vinci group for a related project to the renovation of the Part-Dieu district.
In this report, made public on September 25, the CRC looks at 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 body was particularly interested in the development of the To-Lyon tower, a vast public-private real estate project including, in addition to the tower which must be delivered by Vinci at the end of 2023, parking lots and the restructuring of the area for the local station.
The CRC is surprised to see Vinci, through its subsidiary SCCV To-Lyon, having also been responsible for the construction of the parking lot at Place Béraudier, opposite the station, and where a low square of several levels must see the light of day in 2025. She notes that the choice of the company “lacked transparency in a very competitive sector”.
A sale carried out “under legally questionable conditions”
The chamber also considers “that the sale of the lower square (…) was carried out under legally questionable conditions, the work having been designed by the public community and to satisfy its needs”. If the CRC recognizes that the To-Lyon operation was based on co-construction with a private investor, it also emphasizes “that it is no less questionable since part of the works is intended to be useful to the community “.
The metropolis of Lyon, chaired since 2020 by ecologist Bruno Bernard, did not wish to comment. The lawyer for Gérard Collomb, socialist mayor of Lyon from 2001 to 2017 then LREM from 2018 to 2020, who had led the public community from 2015 to 2017, indicated that his client’s health did not currently allow this last to answer questions from the press.