Lyon, France, Saturday 12 November 2011, at the site of its future world headquarters, euronews laid the first stone of one of the most prominent buildings in Lyon’s new Confluence district, an urban renewal project in central Lyon.

Michael Peters, the Managing Director of Euronews, was joined for the ceremony by:
Frédéric Mitterrand, French Minister of Culture and Communication, Jean-Jack Queyranne, President of the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council and former Minister, Gérard Collomb, Senator and Mayor of Lyon, President of the Greater Lyon Urban Community, along with representatives of the co-owners of the new building: Marc Papinutti, Managing Director of Voies Navigables de France (VNF), Claude Blanchet, Regional Director of Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) and the developer, Jean-Christophe Larose, Chairman of Groupe Cardinal, and the architects, Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane.

Designed by architects Jakob + MacFarlane, the future world headquarters of euronews will be an audacious and modern building with a strong identity, reflecting the values of the channel. The international news channel will be located on the docks of the Saône river, in the heart of the Lyon Confluence district, the largest urban redevelopment project in Europe.
The building will be completed in the last quarter of 2013. It will then take six months to finish the interior layout and technical installations so that the channel can begin operations at the new site in 2014.

With approximately 10,000 square metres of space on 6 levels, the building will accommodate the 800 current staff of the international news channel. The two spherical voids on the facade and the perforated outer shell of bright green aluminium are just a few of the technical feats of the building whose interior is designed to meet the needs of a television channel broadcasting live worldwide, 24 hours a day.

This new building, one of the Confluence district’s most eye-catching for its size and design, will raise the channel’s profile not only in its home base of Lyon, but also at the regional level and beyond, acting as a showcase for one of the world’s leading media companies.

This move into the city centre represents a challenge and an opportunity for euronews. The additional space is greatly needed to keep up with the expansion of the channel in recent years. By doubling the size of its premises, euronews will radically transform its working environment and its capacity for development, as well as offering its teams a new workplace in a fabulous setting at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers.

euronews will co-own its future headquarters along with the Caisse des Dépôts development bank and Voies Navigables de France waterways administration agency, in a joint real estate venture, SCI Pavillon Vert (euronews 35%, Caisse des Dépôts 25%, VNF 40%).

Caisse d’Epargne Rhône Alpes (CERA) will handle the long-term financing of SCI Pavillon Vert as concerns the building itself, along with certain interior equipment. CERA also provided the financial guarantee to the developer for the construction, in the form of a real estate development contract.

euronews
euronews, the international news channel, covers world affairs 24 hours a day. With 11 language versions* and 400 journalists from more than 25 countries, euronews offers a unique perspective and analysis of the news.
Launched in 1993 and based in Lyon, euronews broadcasts to 350 million homes in 155 countries via all modes of distribution: tv, internet, smartphones, tablets…
* Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.