The municipality of Emmen wants to give the heart of the Emmer city center a major overhaul. It concerns the area between Markt and shopping center Weiert, which connects Hoofdstraat and Raadhuisplein. Costs of the desired, renovated center: fifty million euros. To make all plans possible, a lot of money is needed from The Hague, says Emmen.
With this, Emmen wants to tackle the vacancy in the Vlinderpassage, Dalipassage, Kleepassage and the Paviljoenpand on Mondriaanplein. This by partly giving the buildings a different purpose, for example living. The passages must also be decorated with more greenery. Alderman Jisse Otter emphasizes that this is a wishful thinking and not yet a design.
“The special thing about Emmen is that we have the most vacancy in the heart of the center. Our biggest problems are there,” says Otter. “We would like a better connection between the market and the shopping centre. The Butterfly Passage along the old V&D building should be opened and perhaps a bit wider. If you don’t know any better, you have no idea that there is a shopping center behind it.”
The V&D building itself was bought by project developer Peter van Dijk, who has big plans for it: a residential and shopping complex with forty to fifty apartments. According to Otter, there would be room for a parking garage underneath. “Residents can then drive their car into the garage from the market side.”
The shops in the Kleepassage have to make way for a green residential street, right in the center. The Scheer & Foppenpand, which has been vacant for years, in the covered shopping center De Weiert in Emmen is undergoing a metamorphosis into a residential shopping complex with 21 apartments under the name Willinkhof.
In the ideal scenario there is a lot of space for housing above shops on the passages. If necessary with a floor built on top. “At the Raadhuisplein we would like to let the catering industry do their thing, they are good there, but on top there may be room for homes,” says alderman Guido Rink.
All in all, the municipality hopes for about a hundred newly built homes and the same number of spaces converted into apartments in the central area.