After years of deliberation, the British entertainment group Merlin Entertainments (the owner of Legoland), Wallonia and the federal state have agreed: provided the costs are not too high, the newest Legoland theme park should open its doors in 2027 in Gosselies, just outside the city, about a two-hour drive from the Dutch border.
This place is still a scar in the Walloon landscape. An immense American tractor factory used to be located here, Caterpillar, which closed its doors in 2017 to move production to China. At least 2,000 people lost their jobs as a result.
Mine closure
It was the umpteenth blow for Charleroi. This area once belonged to the richest regions in the world, but after the mine closure and the decline of the steel industry, the city slipped further and further. Charleroi, published in 2008 by the readers of de Volkskrant was voted the ugliest city in the world, was synonymous with poverty, unemployment, crime and vacancy.
In recent years, however, the tide has turned: the city council has put its shoulders to the wheel with the help of European and Belgian subsidies. Ruined neighborhoods were renovated, quays were made low-traffic, the town square was renovated, and an art museum and a gigantic shopping center arose.
Now Legoland has been added, a tourist attraction that should provide about a thousand jobs for the region, 70 percent of which are for the low-skilled.
‘Suffering gives way to hope’
“This allows us to turn the painful page that was the closure of Caterpillar,” Walloon government prime minister Elio Di Rupo said enthusiastically on Wednesday. “Suffering is now giving way to hope and new job opportunities are being offered to the people of our region.”
It will cost between 370 and 400 million euros to build the attraction, of which Wallonia will pay 100 million euros. This makes it the second largest investment in Wallonia in the past 10 years, after the Google data center in Mons. If the costs are disappointing in view of the current economic situation, each partner can still reconsider the decision. A final decision is not expected until the end of the year.
On average, the Legoland parks attract between 1.5 and 2 million visitors per year, a number that is also targeted in Charleroi (about two hours drive from the Dutch border). There are already three fully-fledged Legoland parks in Europe: in Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. The amusement park in Charleroi would become the fourteenth Legoland park in the world.