The Municipal Executive of Helmond is entering into a long-term joint venture with ING Vastgoed and Amstelland Ontwikkeling BV for the development of the town centre plan. The municipality has drawn up an integral structural concept for this plan in which living, working, shopping and parking all play a major role.
The municipality and both developers are now involved in drawing up a declaration of intent. The parties are intending to complete matters by the autumn so that a declaration of intent can be signed in October.
With the combination of ING Vastgoed and Amstelland Ontwikkeling BV, the municipality is convinced it has found the right mix of specific market knowledge in the area of retail property, commercial property and housing at local, regional and national level. Moreover, they are both prosperous partners and both companies have a great deal of experience with town centre redevelopment.
Recent consultations have also been held with the Woonpartners foundation. This foundation owns a large number of dwellings in De Waart and will therefore have a clear role to play in the redevelopment.
Together with ING Vastgoed and Amstelland Ontwikkeling BV, the municipality will develop a master plan for the centre area, which will detail such matters as visual quality, architecture and phasing. This master plan will be completed in the autumn of 2003, after which implementation can begin. This will take about 15 years.
The Integral Structural Concept for the Centre of Helmond is as follows:
retail trade (10,000 m2 gfa); art and culture cluster (12,000 m2 gfa)offices (10,000 m2 gfa); town-centre housing (1,700 houses); theme centre (incl. large-scale retail trade: 17,000 m2 gfa); hotel, single-storey hall, conference space (6,000 m2 gfa); care and welfare provisions (4,000 m2 gfa); youth facilities (2,000 m2 gfa); restaurants (1,000 m2 gfa); parking (2,300 parking places).
The total project will require an investment of approximately € 450 million.
(source: Amstelland, ING Vastgoed and Municipality of Helmond )
