The HEMA’s retail building on Koopmansplein in Assen has a new owner. After months of negotiation, the building came into the hands of the local real estate company Ploegmakers Beheer. “Our patience has been rewarded. We have been watching it for four years now”, director Alfred Welink of Ploegmakers is jubilating. “This is a beautiful place in Assen and it is completely in line with our ambition to make the city a little more beautiful every time”
The shopping complex at Koopmansplein 1 includes Sports World in addition to the HEMA store. For years, the building was in the hands of a consortium of investors, whose interests were represented by Crossroads Real Estate. In 2023 the HEMA was completely renovated and refurbished, just like the restaurant.
According to Welink, the building was mainly purchased, as an Asser Vastgoedbedrijf ‘to get an important place at the table for a prominent location’. “This purchase fits perfectly with our ambition to strengthen the city center of Assen for the future,” says Welink. Woest plans do not have team makers directly in front of the building. “We leave it at first, but in the meantime we will get started with what is possible in the future at this place.”
As a local real estate company, Ploegmakers Beheer in recent years with the acquisition of buildings has focused primarily on ‘high -quality locations’, which are of strategic importance for further development of Assen. “We mainly want to strengthen the Koopmansplein as a shopping heart, and of course the Hema is in a prominent place. D’r has been invested a lot in the square itself, but what is around it, a lot has to be improved.”
Welink sees ‘a lot of potential’ in the HEMA location, and building a residential complex with luxury apartments at that location in the future, which certainly plays through his thoughts. “And not in the form of a solid building block with a high facade, but a playful variant with height differences in the number of floors. And with roof gardens, inner gardens, and balconies.”
He also knows the sounds that many Assenaren prefer to see the ‘horrible building with red bricks’ disappear as quickly as possible. The call has been for years to make a visible connection to the new Kolk from the Koopmansplein, so that the cultural center is more involved in the city center. Welink understands that wish, because the HEMA façade is certainly not mother’s most beautiful. However, demolition is not yet an issue.
“Before we make rigorous plans for this place, we first look the cat out of the tree,” says Welink. “There are more real estate investors around the Koopmansplein, the big question is what they want with their position, where do they now have an interest in. On the west side, apartments have now been placed above the stores. But for the rest nothing is happening. We have been waiting for years for years Concrete redevelopment of the empty V&D building and the north side of ‘t Forum and what is happening with the Mercuriusplein. “
As far as Welink is concerned, the municipality is now the first to move, for improving the heart of Assen. “As a local real estate entrepreneur, we now hold the HEMA block. Hopefully the municipality can be tempted into a master plan, for what must be done around the square. We have an important position at the table. And with a Local real estate company is always easier to talk than with foreign investors, who have little connection with Assen. “
In the meantime, Welink thinks about how as a new owner they can make the brick HEMA building a little more attractive, both on the front and back. “Maybe something with wooden upholstery, or glass, or the facade greening with moss or sedum. I am looking for what is desirable, and what is possible. But that will not happen this year.”
Because before the back of the Hema, which is mainly maligned because of the ugly sight, there are plans for the municipality in the week. He wants to redesign the Weiersstraat as a car -free Groene Laan. “The parking spaces behind the Hema are of course also involved. So before we actually get to work, we must know what is about to happen, everything is closely related,” Welink concludes.