More Housing Hoogvliet Shopping Centre

Vacant first floor space has been a long-term issue in shopping centres. Especially when the range of shops is fairly saturated. This was also the case at Hoogvliet Shopping Centre. Owner Kroonenberg Groep saw this as an opportunity to concentrate shops on the ground floor and develop homes on the first floor.

It started with a pilot in 2018 in which eleven homes were built on a number of empty shopping centre floors. It turned out to be a success, with all the properties renting out very quickly. For this reason, seven more homes were recently built in various locations in the shopping centre and were also quickly rented out. Nineteen new apartments were completed above the Albert Heijn this week.

Michiel Schröder, project developer at Kroonenberg Groep: ‘We’re happy to see how successful the creation of homes has been. Together with the estate agent we looked closely at the demand in Hoogvliet. There appeared to be a housing shortage, with a particularly high demand among two target groups: younger couples from the neighbourhood and elderly people who like to live close to a shopping centre.’

The houses are delivered move-in ready and are equipped with a spacious living room, luxury open kitchen, underfloor heating, 2 or 3 bedrooms, complete bathroom and a surprisingly large outdoor space of 25 m² on average. The living areas range from approximately 90m² to 115m².

A uniform appearance was selected for the exterior of the homes, with the same facades and window frames. All have a view of a lovely courtyard, which is not visible from the outside. Michiel Schröder: ‘We have put a lot of energy into creating a comfortable and luxurious feeling, which enables us to offer tenants more liveability than you would expect at this location. This is also reflected in the use of high quality materials and the high level of finishing. People who have seen them have been pleasantly surprised by what they see.’

The shopping centre’s exterior was worked on while the houses were being built. Both Albert Heijn and Dirk van de Broek have impressive new entrances, shops have been equipped with new frontage and everything has been repainted. This has given the entire area a major facelift, which is good for attracting people to the shopping centre. The construction of 10 apartments will soon get underway above the renovated Dirk, the location of the former Bristol.

In the near future, Kroonenberg Groep will continue to explore the possibilities of further optimising the shopping centre and wants to eventually add about 25 additional homes.