When it opened in the early 1990s, it was announced as the most beautiful shopping center in the Netherlands. But now the Biggelaar in Roosendaal has been completely empty for four years. Attempts to breathe new life into the building failed and so the haunted hall has now been demolished.
Since the Prijsstunter was the last remaining store to close its doors in January 2018, the Biggelaar has become extinct. Not that there hasn’t been an attempt to change that. After the plan to turn it into a cinema fell through, the shopping center seemed to be transformed into the gaming Valhalla of the Netherlands. The first sketches were already on the table, but corona threw a spanner in the works.
Game Center
But even a year ago, Alderman Cees Lok was still cautiously optimistic. He then hoped to see some stores open again in the foreseeable future. “A Roosendaal entrepreneur has stepped into the project,” he said at the time. “He is suffering from the vacancy. Due to the closure of the Biggelaar, he is also missing out on customers. He is now going to try to entice other shopkeepers to open their business here.”
That plan now appears to have failed, because on Wednesday Lok announced the change of course together with the manager of the property. The Biggelaar will be demolished and has to make way for about a hundred apartments. The parking garage above the shopping center will then probably disappear underground. There will also be a new street that should ensure that the adjacent Raadhuisstraat becomes easier to reach after years.
It is not yet known when the wrecking ball will pass through the shopping center. It should be clear within a year what exactly the new building will look like.
movie set
Anyone who has become curious about the shopping center can still take a look at the end of this year. On television, yes. At the end of last year, the Biggelaar was used as a film set for the drama series Het Gouden Uur, which is to be broadcast on NPO3 later this year.
A terrorist attack was filmed in the empty shopping center, in which many extras were also present.