2023-11-25 10:55:46
Behind the Saint-Saturnin church, not far from a new five-star hotel, stretches a vast area watered by three weeks of rain. This is where the old psychiatric hospital stood. And that a subdivision of fourteen houses will soon be built, promised between 316,000 and 404,000 euros per unit, particularly high prices for the neighborhood.
France 3 revealed on November 19 that a preliminary investigation was opened in September by the Blois public prosecutor’s office, following a report from the Anticor association, for suspicion of embezzlement of public funds concerning this land in the Vienne district.
The site, acquired by the city in 2008 for 330,000 euros, required nearly 4.8 million euros of public money for demolition, decontamination and preventive archaeological excavations. It was sold for 80,000 euros to a Parisian developer who is thus beginning his fourth real estate program in Blois.
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The mayor (Socialist Party), Marc Gricourt, in office since March 2008, is confident: “We will have the opportunity to demonstrate that everything that has been done in this area has respected the legislation, town planning regulations and the rules that apply in this type of project. » However, he deplores “a serious accusation which, in our opinion, is unfounded”.
“Total absence of vision”
The mayor’s heritage policy has its detractors. The art historian Didier Rykner criticizes the“total absence of vision” of the one who would have “sacrificed” the foundations of an old tennis court for a downtown shopping center project. Several associations accuse him of having sold off a whole series of real estate properties in strategic locations to a handful of private investors.
In 2019, for example, the former Victor-Hugo school was sold, a stone building of 1,000 square meters of living space, almost adjacent to the facade of the Loges du château de Blois and surrounded by one of the most beautiful public gardens in the city. It was acquired for 320,000 euros, six times below its real market value, by an investor from Blais promising an uncertain number of lodgings. “A price consistent with the evaluation of the Domaines”, assured the town hall in an evaluation which only serves as an advisory opinion.
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Four years later, the said school is empty, many tiles are broken. “The work is starting, we are going to build apartments”assures the owner, Mourad Zaaraoui, owner of a restaurant at the top of the street and recent purchaser of the former house of Albert Poulain – named after the famous Blésoise chocolate factory – nearby.
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