Alstom lays the first stone of its future real estate complex in the Carré de Soie business district in Villeurbanne

On 11 October, Alstom CEO, Patrick Kron, unveiled the first stone of the SILKY building in the Carré de Soie^[1] district of Villeurbanne which is due to host Alstom Transports entire railway electronics business by 2015. In this way, Alstom will establish its presence in Greater Lyon for the long term. The ceremony took place in the presence of Senator Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon and Chairman of Greater Lyon, and Jean-Paul Bret, Mayor of Villeurbanne.

This new 36,600m² building, developed by DCB International, will host all of Alstom Transports Villeurbanne-based employees and departments currently spread over five separate buildings. The site will be a genuine showcase for Frances railway high-tech industry, containing office space, workshops for the manufacture of electronic equipment, a logistics hall and test laboratories, as well as a showroom displaying the latest innovations in signalling systems. In all, it will hold over 1,000 highly qualified people serving Alstom customers in the region and across the world.

Alstom employs close to 3,000 people in the Rhône-Alpes region, accounting for 16% of its workforce and has six industrial facilities in the area representing the Groups three business activities: railway systems (Villeurbanne), smart electrical systems (Villeurbanne, Saint-Priest and Aix-les-Bains) and hydroelectric equipment (Villeurbanne, Grenoble). The company is consolidating its presence in the Rhône-Alpes region, as demonstrated by the construction of the SILKY building, which comes with a confirmed rental contract for a 12-year period, by its choice of local real estate developer, DCB International, for the project, and by the provenance of the investors (ANF, Caisse dEpargne Rhône-Alpes and DCB Partners).

The SILKY building will provide numerous features for improved comfort: access to natural daylight, larger areas for working, services, conviviality and conversation, open spaces on a human scale as well as others offering privacy, a company restaurant seating about 500 complete with outdoor terrace and a sports centre.

SILKY will be a reference in terms of sustainable development: it will be the first building in France to obtain the twin HQE^[2] and BREEAM^[3] certification, incorporating 2012 Thermal Regulations (RT2012)^[4]. The new building will feature a centralised control system that activates blinds, modulates lighting according to outside luminosity and monitors energy use (heating, air-conditioning, hot water and lighting). Rainwater will be collected to service the parks and gardens, as will the energy created by the motion of lifts. The new complex will also have recharging stations for electric cars and bicycle parking by every entrance.

Employee and visitor safety will also be reinforced by physically separating the various traffic flows. One entrance will be devoted to soft modes of transport (pedestrians, bicycles, scooters), a second one will be reserved for cars and motorcycles, while a third will handle logistics traffic (lorries, forklift trucks).

Alstom Transport in Villeurbanne specialises in on-board railway electronic systems and products, which are the real brain and backbone of any train. There are 750 employees in the city, two-thirds of whom are engineers and supervisors, working on the development, validation, industrialisation, manufacture and maintenance of those systems and products, as well as managing projects.

Press Contacts
Virginie Hourdin / Isabelle Tourancheau (Alstom Group) - Tel. +33 1 41 49 21 36 / 39 95

virginie.hourdin-bremond@chq.alstom.com ; isabelle.tourancheau@chq.alstom.com  

Pauline Rey (Alstom Transport Villeurbanne) Tel. +33 4 72 81 58 65

pauline.rey@transport.alstom.com

^[1] The Carré de Soie district is Lyons 4^th-ranking business district

^[2] Haute Qualité Environnementale (High Environmental Quality). An approach to managing environmental quality in building construction and renewal operations

^[3] BREEAM is a British standard which applies to sustainable construction

^[4] 2012 Thermal Regulations aim at reducing energy use in new residential buildings and in those intended for other purposes (tertiary sector).