If it is up to Hans Hendrikse of the Albert Heijn in Zuidlaren, the municipality of Tynaarlo should grant a permanent place to his store on the Prins Bernhardhoeve site. The municipality thinks it cannot award a place and is relying on the so-called Didam ruling. This morning both parties stood before the preliminary relief judge in Assen.
Hendrikse has been working towards a permanent move to the PBH site since 2002. “In 2001 I took over the Albert Heijn on Stationsweg,” he explains. “The store quickly became too small and we started discussing a move to the PBH site.”
More than twenty years later, Hendrikse does have a supermarket on the coveted site, but it is a temporary location. The entrepreneur believes he is entitled to a permanent store on the site and bases his decision on a decision by the Tynaarlo municipal council in 2014.
But time has caught up with this decision, which states that the municipality will cooperate with first a temporary and later a permanent store. At least that is what the municipality’s lawyer says. He points to the Didam judgment from 2021. The premise of that judgment is that the government must offer all candidates for a piece of land an equal opportunity, through a public and clear selection procedure.
This is often done through a tender. It is therefore no longer possible to simply extend a lease contract, for example.
The municipality of Tynaarlo wants to award the contract, but says it simply cannot. According to Miranda van Eekelen-Atema, lawyer for the Zuidlaarden entrepreneur, this is possible. “Albert Heijn was already located there before the Didam ruling,” she says. Moreover, so many agreements have been made over the years that Albert Heijn distinguishes itself from other possible parties.
“The principle of trust takes precedence over the principle of equality here,” says the lawyer. She therefore believes that the municipality should honor previous commitments and grant Hendrikse his permanent place.
The requirement from Albert Heijn Hendrikse is therefore simple: a location must be determined on the PBH site for the permanent store, taking into account the current, temporary store so that it can continue to operate during the construction of the supermarket. In addition, the municipality must enter into negotiations with the entrepreneur.
According to lawyer Marijn Nuijens, the municipality is in a difficult position. Tynaarlo cannot award the location to the supermarket, because another party could then object. “There are also several candidates,” he says.
Making an exception is not possible – as far as the municipality is concerned. The preliminary relief judge will therefore consider the case and will issue a ruling within two weeks.