Velodrome stadium refurbishment

The city of Marseille partnered with Arema for the renovation of the Velodrome stadium and its annex buildings.

The goal of the project was to provide a modern multi-use sporting facility dedicated to hosting the official games of the resident soccer team, international soccer and rugby matches and six matches of the Euro 2016 final games. The project comprised the renovation and expansion of the Velodrome Stadium in order to upgrade it to international standards.

The refurbished stadium is designed to have an increased seating capacity of 67,000, compared to the 60,030 seating capacity of the former facility. The sporting facilities were accompanied by an urban development project including a real estate programme with housing, shops, hotels, offices building, restaurants and a clinic on the site.

The stadium is designed to generate more energy than it consumes through the installation of wind turbines and the recovery of heat from a neighbouring water treatment plant.

Our role

Currie & Brown assisted the consortium and the lenders during the competitive tendering process and was also tasked with operation monitoring for the lenders.

We helped the client reduce risk by monitoring the project during the operation and maintenance phase and by providing regular reports to the client and lenders. We were also involved in the development of clear temporary handover procedures to minimise the impact of construction on an occupied site with regular national soccer games.