“The site offers space in the western port area where companies that are currently located somewhere else in the port area can go to. The movement of these companies creates room for housing in Haven-Stad,” reads in a statement. The municipality speaks of “thousands of new homes”.
The purchase agreement has been concluded with the development and investment company of entrepreneur Wim Beelen. According to that company, Larendael, the site was valued at 235 million euros. Part of the purchase is that all legal disputes between the BV of Beelen, the municipality and the Port Authority are terminated.
‘Realize dream’
Beelen gets a plot of up to 3 hectares for a shipyard with a dock for yachts on the former Amsterdam Droogdok Maatschappij site on the former Amsterdamsche Droogdok. Beelen says that everyone is back “at his starting point: the municipality has its land back and I can realize my dream.”
It took a long time before the site came back into the hands of the municipality. It was cracked more than 25 years ago and a cultural sanctuary arose. In 2019 it was returned to the then owner, Beelen bought it four years ago. Amsterdam speaks of a “historic deal” now that the municipality is reducing the “strategically located piece of scarce land”. Alderman Hester van Buren is happy to be able to look at the future and “to continue the complicated puzzle in the port area”.