Platform on new construction, renovation, restoration and transformation
As long as it has been vacant there, the decision was quickly made to build a housing complex with 193 homes on the vacant lot on the Grote Beer in Rotterdam Alexander. Most of them are intended for middle-income earners. This plan originated in the spring of 2020 and the goal was to drive the first pile into the ground as early as December 2021. Due to this clear ambition of the Municipality of Rotterdam, quick action by Dura Vermeer and early intervention by parties such as housing investor and landlord Vesteda, this goal has been achieved.
In the spring of 2020, Dura Vermeer took over earlier Klepierre plans for the plot of land near the Grote Beer and built on them. The infill of the site that Dura Vermeer proposed was in line with the municipality's ambition: to build at least 8,000 middle-income rental homes over the next 10 years. This created a unique situation, because the plan had yet to be officially approved.
An unsolicited proposal turned out to be the solution. This is an unsolicited proposal that skips the process of soliciting and tendering. Project manager at the Municipality of Rotterdam, Rob Out: "Because of our construction ambition, we took advantage of the legal opportunity to do the contract formation one-on-one." Dick Boelen, director at Dura Vermeer adds: "Therefore, when the municipality asked us in 2020 to further develop the piece of land on the Grote Beer, we were already far along. We already had parties like Vesteda on board. So it was really about declaring the plan official. Thanks to an unsolicited proposal, we submitted the proposal in the summer of that year, knowing that we wanted the first pile driven by December 2021. That goal gave a huge boost, provided a team that shifted gears quickly and got to work with a no-nonsense mentality."
Project developer Jos Verhulst on behalf of Dura Vermeer said, "While waiting for the municipality's approval, we already started working on the pieces of the puzzle for the spatial planning process. Each party committed to the goal of the first pole in December 2021. An average development project takes between five and seven years. We started submitting the unsolicited proposal in April 2020 and we are already ready in December 2023. That's bizarrely fast."
For Vesteda, getting involved in this development process at an early stage was a good way to also be able to realize its own ambitions, the goal of getting affordable rental housing on the market. Vesteda's chief investment officer Pieter Knauff says, "This allowed us to actively participate in the design process. As a result, we made a feasible and quick contribution to the development of affordable rental housing."
After approval by the municipality, the speed remained. Files were monitored monthly, with bottlenecks being resolved immediately. The focus remained on the goal: the date on which the first pile went into the ground. There was also time and attention for the team and room to communicate very directly. Rob Out confirms the unique collaboration: "I think our Rotterdam no-nonsense mentality is really one of the success factors of this project."
