This story was reported and written by Luc-Étienne Rouillard Lafond, with design by Jelena Schulz.
When bidding to host a global event such as the Olympic Games and embarking on the colossal effort to make it happen, candidate cities are often lured, as if by siren song, by promises of prestige and economic riches.
For a world capital such as Paris, local leaders also aspire to create something lasting, a legacy in the form of a real estate revival.
"Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024 is a tremendous opportunity to renovate, develop and transform the territories of the Paris region," said Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris.
The global event represents an opportunity "to speed up projects...to adapt to the climatic and environmental challenges of the 21st century" and "to promote French know-how and the work of many world leaders in the construction and development sector, and to propose a new, more sober, ambitious and innovative way of building."
French leaders have assembled a group of public and private players to achieve this ambition, led by the Société de livraison des ouvrages olympiques — known as Solideo.
Established in 2017, the organization is responsible for coordinating the construction of all the permanent structures built as part of the Games, has been given a budget of €3.8 billion or $4.2 billion, including €1.7 billion or about $1.9 billion in public subsidies.
Some 31 public and private contractors in 15 municipalities are working to build or renovate 70 Olympic structures. The vast majority of facilities already exist or are temporary, helping to conserve public resources.
"We are not only organizing the biggest sporting event on the planet, we are also seizing the unique opportunity to support or encourage positive changes in society," said Tony Estanguet, a three-time Olympic canoeist champion and president of the Paris 2024 Olympic organizing effort.
Spotlighting Seine-Saint-Denis
At the heart of the effort is redevelopment of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, a northern suburb of Paris and France’s poorest sector. About 80% of the public investment overseen by Solideo has been directed to the region.
“That's what we wanted to achieve in the Paris 2024 bid, and what we're achieving today: to make the poorest and youngest département in mainland France the legacy of the Games," said Stéphane Troussel, chairman of the Seine-Saint-Denis département council.
Mathieu Hanotin, mayor of Saint-Denis and chairman of the Plaine Commune local authority, notes the region "has suffered chronic under-investment for 50 years" and he believes that there is "a catch-up effect that is more than necessary and is only fair in relation to the past."
The region is already home to the French national stadium, the Stade de France, which will hold the opening and closing ceremonies. In addition, the region will host eight Olympic disciplines (98 sports sessions) and three Paralympic sports (43 sports sessions) during the Games.
"We wanted to make the poorest and youngest département in mainland France the legacy of the Games." —Stéphane Troussel, chairman of the Seine-Saint-Denis département council
One of the largest new developments is designed to be repurposed after the 2024 Games. It is the sprawling athletes village that has taken root across three Seine-Saint-Denis municipalities — Saint-Denis, L'Île-Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine. The center will be home to 14,500 Olympic athletes and officials, followed by 9,000 Paralympic athletes and their support staff. After the Olympics, the 128-acre complex is to be converted into 2,807 houses and about 1.3 million square feet of business, office and service space, housing 6,000 residents and 6,000 employees all set around nearly 15 acres of public green spaces and redeveloped inner city blocks.
"It will be a model of the city we want to build: a city where life is good. Economic and commercial activities will sit side by side with public services, leisure and recreation facilities and residential buildings," Hanotin said.
New Infrastructure
Patrick Ollier, mayor of Rueil-Malmaison and president of a metropolitan administrative district known as the Métropole du Grand Paris, agreed, saying the Games offer an opportunity to introduce millions of visitors to the region and invest in the future.
"This event, for example, was an ideal opportunity to produce sports facilities that will remain as a legacy and help to rebalance the region between the east, north and west of Paris."
It was with that legacy in mind that the Greater Paris metropolitan area undertook the construction of the Olympic Aquatics Centre — "now the most beautiful swimming pool in France," Ollier said.
The new facility includes 53,800 square feet of photovoltaic panels on the roof and an architectural shape designed to optimize inside temperatures.
"This infrastructure, combined with the creation or renovation of six new swimming pools and two water training pools, will provide a learning center for the children of Seine-Saint-Denis, 60% of whom cannot swim," Ollier added.
In addition to the many buildings directly linked to the competitions, French leaders are putting in place other Games infrastructure in pursuit of a real estate legacy.
These include new mass transit connections, four school complexes built in the municipalities of Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis, Dugny and Le Bourget, as well as 20 local public and sports facilities refurbished across the Île-de-France region, as well as less visible projects such as the burial of high-voltage power lines, the construction of noise barriers and the restoration of the banks of the Seine.
Hanotin, the Saint-Denis mayor, hopes the Games represent just a starting point. The legacy of the Olympic Games "must not, however, be limited to these investments," he said, but "must be an accelerating effect for our region and a means of doing something else.”