2024 Olympics: Solideo has repurposed 95% of the Olympic venues

"Solideo's mission was twofold: we had to deliver the structures for the Games on time, but we also had to convert them quickly. From the design phase, we designed each of the structures to be quickly and easily converted," stressed Yann Krysinski, executive director general of the public establishment in charge of delivering the Olympic structures for 2024, during a press briefing.

"The objectives have been met, by December 31, 2025 we will have 95% of the Olympic and Paralympic venues open to the public, there will remain 5% of the venues which will be delivered and opened to the public post-2025," he summarized.

As an example, in the first quarter of 2025, the first residents of the former media village were able to move into the Dugny site (a municipality in Seine-Saint-Denis) while the Saint-Denis Olympic aquatic center and its four pools - notably the venue for diving and water polo competitions - opened to the public in June.

Among the remaining "material legacy" projects from the Games to be delivered are, in Saint-Denis, a school complex scheduled to open in 2027, two student residences, and approximately 1,000 housing units. In Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, plans include a school complex, around 1.300 housing units, and two student residences.

On the "intangible heritage" side, Yann Krysinski emphasizes that "the methods tested during the games [...] are replicable and can be reused by other project leaders", like the - separate - team from Solideo involved in the preparation of the 2030 Winter Olympics in the Alps.

On December 31, the Solideo 2024 team's mission will end, but its structure, planned to remain in place until 2028, will be integrated into the public establishment Grand Paris Aménagement. The latter, through a pooling agreement published Thursday in the Official Journal, will take over the redevelopment of the remaining 5% of Olympic venues starting in January 2026.

Yann Krysinski specified that a financial review of Solideo 2024 operations will be examined on Friday during a board meeting.

For the Paris Games, "the overall budget for the Olympic venues was 4,5 billion euros, the 'model' of Solideo, i.e. the public subsidies, was a little less than 1,7 billion. Since December 2023, we have already returned a little more than 70 million" to the State and local authorities, "this is the consequence of good budget management", he emphasized.