The Odéon
Tower in Monaco was built
2009-2015 at Bd de Ténao
in Monaco by the French
Vinci Company on behalf of
Monegasque princepals (sic) at a
small plot of steep land, that borders
also to some small houses and villas of
Beausoleil, France, on the other side of
the border where I live ... but not behind
the Odéon Tower.
Today - December 2016 - it looks
... well ... big from route D51 - Bd
Guynemer - 20 meters away at
Beausoleil:
And from the other - Monaco - Bd de
Ténao - side:
The Odéon Tower is maybe
49 stories high and 170 meters tall.
Nobody really knows for well known, local
Monegasque reasons. It can be taller. It
is suggested that there are >400 flats
and numerous offices in the Tower to house
more than 3 000 people and >500 cars.
Access to the Tower is only via Bd de
Ténao at Beausoleil in
France/Monaco or via 36 Av de
Annonciade in Monaco and thus
extremely bad. Access to the Tower via
route D51 - Bd Guynemer - 20 meters
away at Beausoleil is doubtful; it is abt
30 metres aboveBd de
Ténao; see Google map
below!
The owners of the Tower own also
adjacent, very small plots of land in
France, FR, but no building will take
place there. There are no building permits
issued for the adjacent plots, FR, in
Beausoleil. The FR plots will only be used
to put equipment to build the tower and
will then be turned into gardens or
graveyards. Later, it may happen that
unhappy inhabitants consider suicide and
then jumps ... passing the border ... to
land at Beausoleil.
There are six other tall, ugly towers
in Monaco nearby built 20-30 years ago
putting Beausoleil behind in the shadows.
Many people at Beausoleil are unhappy
about the Odéon tower destroying
the local charm and reducing property
values there. What to do with the ground
in the shadow of the tower at Beausoleil?
Build a garbage recycling plant? Or social
housing, HLM? Or a go-cart race
course?
From the Bd de Ténao in
Monaco/Beausoleil looking up the plot looked as
seen below before construction started:
The little house seen up in right
corner is located at Beausoleil.
Also the palm tree at top centre. The
building seen at left side is the
Collége de Monaco. One house has
been torn down on the French side on the
right of the red line. No building permits
of any kind have been approved by the
mayor of Beausoleil for the land on the
French side. The idea is to cut a big hole
in the ground on the Monaco side only as
foundation and garage for the Tower and
only to build on the Monaco side. The
French side will just support the tower.
On 10 April 2011 the place looked
like:
Plenty of Monegasque soil has been dug away. The
impressive hole will go deeper down into the
ground.
Looking down from Bd Guynemer at
Beausoleil, from behind the palm tree, on the plot
of the future Odéon tower in Monaco:
Looking from same location April 2, 2013, you
see:
Bd Guynemer at Beausoleil is pretty narrow:
Looking down;
Looking up:
The mayor of Beausoleil, M.
Gérard Spinelli, was taken
into custody by French authorities on
24 November 2009 and jailed at Les
Baumettes prison for more than two months.
It was suggested that M. Spinelli
had taken a bribe of €60 000:- (from
Claudio and Paolo Marzocco,
the promotors of the tower, via a Mr Lino
Alberti) to facilitate the Odéon
tower building just a few meters away from
Beausoleil.
M. Spinelli has since been
released from jail. Spinelli and Marzoccos
deny the charges. The case and the tower
building went on 2016! But there is
no need to bribe anybody at Beausoleil to
build the Tower in Monaco with a garden
around the tower at Beausoleil. Just
follow the rules and cooperate. It will be
a nice, ugly tower, if due consideration
is given to the peaceful environment
around Bd Guynemer at Beausoleil that
already has three other towers in view.
You can say whatever you like, but it is
fun to watch Monaco from Beausoleil.
The case is still going on at some
Tribunal at Marseille, November
2016. Spinelli still denies any
charges. January 2017 the trial
ended in a fiasco! All concerned parties
were freed. But the prosecution has
appealed. Thus the case will go on.
Back at 17 October 2012 the
Odéon Tower at Monte Carlo was
rising slowly. Only 40 more stories to go
around the core. It is a single tower. The
lower floors will have no view at all and
are therefore reserved for local, poor,
monegasque people. And all flats facing
west and France will have a view of
Beausoleil and some houses there and vice
versa. The flats facing east will have a
view of the sea. The flats facing south
will have a view of the Palace on the
Monaco Rocher.
Only 40 stories to go. The core will be more
than double in height. Maybe there will be 400+ new
flats in this new, single Monaco tower.
Here is what it looked like April 2, 2013.
The tower will have a nice view of the
Beausoleil cemetary (1 June 2013)
And when it is ready, it will look something
like this!
Seen from West the tower looks like this 6
January 2013:
Personally I prefer to live at Beausoleil closer
to the port of Monaco with a view of the sea:
No tower is blocking my view! I have luck, so
far.
But here is a view of the tower blocking the
view from the Moyenne Corniche road end March 2013,
when 42 floors are erected:
The floors are pretty thin and
supported by the core but, luckily,
monegasque building codes follow French
ones. Evidently some windows and guard
rails will be fitted before occupancy
takes place. The top floor pent house is
on the market at a fantastic price. People
at Beausoleil will easily see what is
going on there.
So what will become of this tower? A
white elephant? Who wants to live in a
tower, where anybody can peek into your
bedroom on the 49th floor from a big road
and many small roads
nearby?
2016 the Odeon Tower is externally
completed and looks quite nice, but its
seems they are still working to outfit the
interior of the apartments at upper
floors. Anyway, it does not bother me the
least as I live at the other end of
Beausoleil.
I am told that a 400 m² flat with
6 rooms on the 22nd floor of Odeon tower
costs €28 000 000:- or €70
000:-/m². Nine floors higher up on
the 31st floor you are supposed to pay €83
000:-/m². If they are outfitted is
not known! Question remains, if anyone
will pay such sums for a little (sic) flat
with view of sea/palace at Monaco. Why not
buy a yacht instead? Or some old or modern
art? Or just forget the whole thing and
have fun.
I am pretty certain that the Odeon
tower - apart from the bottom part for
poor Monegasques - will remain empty with
nobody inside for ever. Why?
No sensible person/family will ever
move into a 400 m² flat on the 31st
floor - with 18 floors above you - just to
live - with a view of the Mediterranean
sea (or Beausoleil behind you). Monaco is
such a small, sleepy place. Of course
plenty people shuttle in each morning to
work there, but in the afternoon they
leave. The real action is actually at
Beausoleil, where I live.
