On the coast, people in Wijk aan Zee wonder: why is it that the renovation of the 1959 hotel on the high dune is taking so long? The festive opening of August 11 has already been postponed because the work on the famous landmark is not yet finished.
Co-owner Rith Groot admits that the target date of August 11 will not be achieved by a long shot. “What was difficult was the demolition. It was difficult for us to reach some places in this building, which has been there since 1959. Energy is the biggest challenge. That is a national challenge. Liander has problems supplying everyone with electricity. They expect the It will take about four to five years before we are connected.”
Due to the problems at Liander, the renovation of the hotel also ran into problems. “That is why we had to make changes. We are now working on seven hundred solar panels for electricity. We are going to heat the building with geothermal heat and then we will be gasless. It is a substantial extra investment of one million euros. Liander cannot help it either, It’s a national challenge.”
December ready
“We were supposed to open on August 11, but I’m afraid we won’t make it. Towards December we’ll have it done and done. The construction work that people see in the village passes faster until the construction holiday, but after that we’re mainly working on the interior. The delivery of the building materials will be until the end of July.”
Better view of Tata
The hotel is being expanded considerably and will have more hotel rooms, a conference room, an enlarged restaurant with lots of glassware and a view of the sea and Tata Steel. “We’ll see that even better then. We’re not ashamed of that. They’re there and then we’ll show it. We don’t close the windowssticker because Tata is next to us.”