The recent sale and operation of the ADM site in the Port of Amsterdam, until three years ago the best-known squatters’ refuge in the Netherlands, is the start of a series of legal proceedings between real estate companies and the municipality of Amsterdam. A company that was sidelined in the land deal is now suing for damages for breach of contract. This is evident from research by NRC to the latest developments in the field.
The site of the former Amsterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij is a 53 hectare plot of land and water at a strategically important location along the North Sea Canal. After the eviction of the squatters three years ago, the Port Authority – wholly owned by the municipality of Amsterdam – tried to buy the land. When those negotiations stalled, the Port Authority gave owner Ferry Sint permission to enter the market. Amsterdam’s main requirement: another buyer had to put at least 85.5 million euros on the table, half a million more than the municipality was willing to pay. In August 2021, Sint sold the site to real estate developer and former demolition contractor Wim Beelen, for 86 million euros. He has far-reaching plans to build a superyacht yard with six docks there.
Also read: New legal claims regarding sale of ADM site
By selling the site to Beelen, Sint broke exclusive agreements that he made shortly before with another company in the port, according to research by NRC. This concerns NWB Assets, which operates a biofuel terminal in the port. Sint says he no longer had faith in NWB.
Leaked app conversations between Sint and Beelen now show that money went back and forth between the real estate entrepreneurs in the days surrounding the transaction. In the week that Beelen bought the site, Sint transferred 1 million euros to Beelen’s private account. According to NWB Assets, this shows that Beelen paid less for the site than the minimum amount required by the municipality.
Beelen and Sint dismiss NWB’s reasoning as “blandness”. According to them, the million paid has nothing to do with the ADM site, but with agreements about two luxury motor yachts in the south of France that the entrepreneurs use together. Danny Sturhoofd, the lawyer of seller Ferry Sint, calls NWB Assets “a bad loser”. According to Sturhoofd, the company is guilty of “gossip and backbiting” by suggesting handclaps between Sint and Beelen.
The Port Authority and Wim Beelen are currently holding mediation talks. The real estate entrepreneur demands 130 million euros from Amsterdam in connection with overdue maintenance of the ADM site, while the municipality believes that Beelen claims pieces of water for his superyacht yard that do not belong to him.
The Port Authority does not wish to comment as long as the mediation with Beelen is still ongoing.
Wim Beelen’s revenge page E10-12
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 9 July 2022