The board of leather development company Stark wants to leave the head office on Dieselstraat in Hoogeveen. Plans for new construction were forged together with the municipalities of Midden-Drenthe, Hoogeveen and De Wolden. They just didn’t agree. The latter party believes that there is a lack of vision.
Stark is a workplace where people with a distance to the labor market can go. For example, in cleaning, production or mail delivery, where they are supervised. To determine whether you are building the right building, De Wolden believes it is important that the future of the company is carefully considered.
So what the work will look like for the workers in the future, says alderman Mark Turksma. He also thinks that the position of the board and the relationship of the municipalities as clients of Stark should be carefully considered. “The board and the management do not sufficiently understand that vision.”
Turksma says that he wants to build a suitable building and, according to him, there is still insufficient insight into this. Construction plans have been prepared since 2021. The new location is on Plesmanstraat, for which the land has already been purchased. The design is also ready. Only the signature under the plan is still missing. The deadline for this passed last week, with all its consequences.
Price agreements were made with the contractors. But now that the deadline has passed, contractors can make new price calculations. Since construction prices have risen, there is a good chance that the bill will increase. Possibly with about 1.1 million euros. This would bring the total to 16.5 million euros.
The rental contract has also already been terminated at the Dieselstraat location. According to the board, the landlord of the building is at an advanced stage with a new tenant. It is still unclear whether Stark can stay in the same place. When the lease is extended, there will be a rent increase. The board therefore takes into account that accommodation also entails extra costs.
The alderman says that De Wolden’s position has been known to the board and management of Stark since September 2022. “However, it was not possible to get a picture of the missing data before the end of March 2023. For the other costs, we assume that the management has been able to prepare sufficiently for this, because the position of the board members of De Wolden has been known since September 2022 .”