The municipality of Groningen is having an external party draw up a factual account of events and circumstances at the Suikerterrein following articles in Dagblad van het Noorden. Groningen will also enter into discussions with the RUG and Hanze about the rent that international students pay in a sea container complex on the Suikerterrein.
This is evident from the answers of the mayor and aldermen (B&W) to questions from the entire opposition.
The outcome of such an account of the facts may be a reason for the municipality to conduct a further investigation into the state of affairs at the Suikerterrein. Groningen has been renting this area to Ploeg id3 since 2015, a company that was led by three good friends of the municipality at the time.
‘Major difference in imaging’
The Commission notes that in between the published article DvhN and the answer of the council questions ‘based on the same public information there is a big difference in the perception’. That is why b&w want to have an external party draw up a statement of facts to gain insight into how this difference could have arisen.
At the beginning of June, this newspaper reported, among other things, that the municipality had to help its newly selected tenant with loans from the start because Ploeg id3 was in need of money, despite the fact that the company claimed to have money of its own and had partners who would co-invest. The minutes also show that a proposal has been made to draw up a fake assignment for Ploeg id3 to solve the money shortage.
The entire opposition in the city council of Groningen wanted that clarification about the state of affairs surrounding the Suikerterrein leased to the company Ploeg id3. B&W say about the bogus assignment that it was not issued and that the minutes ‘ was not drawn up by municipal employees and lacks any nuance’.
The opposition also asked about the bonus and salary of 360,000 euros that the three tenants paid themselves in 2018. B&W say that for this ‘committed commitment’ it is up to the entrepreneur to determine which financial withdrawals he or she wants to make from the company, as long as the company can meet its obligations.’ In the following years, Ploeg id3 built up rent arrears with the municipality.
Team id3 became a tenant after winning a tender, in which the rules of the game were adjusted during the procedure. Urban Settlement, the losing party from Amsterdam, expressed its disappointment in a letter to then alderman Roeland van der Schaaf, which – because it was not necessary – was not shared with the council. Also there asked the opposition. The Board says that the assessment criteria in advance and the result afterwards have been communicated with the Amsterdam company that ‘has accepted this result’.
‘RUG and Hanze are about renting Sugar Homes’
The opposition also wanted to know more about financial aid to Sugar Homes without setting conditions. That is the sea container complex of STHO CV on the Suikerterrein, where 250 international students live who have to deal with ‘significant rent increases’. Two Ploeg id3 members, Dick Janssen and Paul van Bussel, have shares in this business case, for which the former lobbied educational institutions and the municipality through his company Rizoem.
According to the Board, in the spring of 2018, when there was a major shortage of living space, an entrepreneur came forward who was in possession of about 500 used containers. “Given the necessity and time pressure, there was little room to set additional requirements.”
The municipality sees no role in doing anything about the criticized high rent. According to the Board, that role is for the RUG and Hanze University of Applied Sciences, who guaranteed STHO CV a minimum rental income. “On the other hand, the council does have an opinion on this, and we will discuss this.”
About the juggling with total credits and loans to its tenant from 1.6 to 2.55 million for the much more expensive than the construction of roads estimated by Ploeg id3, the commission says: ,,This was mainly because PloegID3/EST underestimated.”