43 apartments for rent will be developed
Translated by Thomas Ansell
The city of Assen has now granted permission for the building of 43 rental apartments on the site of the empty ‘t Forum shopping centre. After the summer ‘low period’, developers and builders will start to work on the building.
In order to build the apartments, significant parts of the shopping centre will be destroyed. The ground floor will still have space for both shops and restaurants or cafés, whilst the majority of the apartments will be build on the southern side of the former shopping centre.
Whilst the permit has been provisionally granted, residents of Assen have six weeks to make their case against any part of the scheme.
‘t Forum has long been an empty shell blighting the centre of Assen, says RTV Drenthe. It occupies a prominent position in the Drents capital, in between the Koopmansplein and the Oudestraat, but suffered from a lack of businesses interested in taking over storefronts. After the central library was moved to the De Nieuwe Kolk arts centre in 2012, ‘t Forum’s decline gathered pace, with H&M leaving in the same year, and the V&D department store chain going bankrupt a year later.
There are only stores on the ground floor, and the shopping centre has often struggled with emptiness: upper floors are completely empty and the escalators have also been taken away.
In 2018 ‘t Forum was bought by Vastgoed Groningen Projectontwikkeling. A new company was then set up, ‘Forum Vastgoed BV’, and owner Thijs van Bree then presented plans for the site. Aside from the 43 apartments on the southern side of the building, Van Bree wishes to construct a residential tower on the northern side, though this is still subject to relevant permits from the city.
If the current schedule is kept to, the apartments will be brought to market in 2021.
Image via WallpaperFlare.
