It featured as breaking news on the property news website Vastgoedjournaal, the Financiële Dagblad newspaper devoted most of a page to it and it was the day’s hot topic at the Provada trade show. It was there that, on Tuesday 30 June, Snippe Projecten joined IC Netherlands in presenting Hyde Park in Hoofddorp: a new city neighbourhood with a truly metropolitan appeal, featuring shops, food & beverage outlets and amenities. It will be located right next to Hoofddorp railway station and within walking distance of Hoofddorp shopping centre and a beautiful city park. What is now the slightly desolate Beukenhorst-West office park is set to become a vibrant neighbourhood with as many as 6,000 new residents in just a few years’ time.
At the Provada, André Snippe joined Wouter van den Eijnden, director of IC Netherlands, in signing a letter of intent with Haarlemmermeer municipal executives Elzakalai and Steffens-van de Water. This sounded the starting signal for the development of an urban plan, which will be in the expert hands of Winy Maas from the Rotterdam-based architects firm MVRDV.
Several decades ago, Beukenhorst-West was a thriving office park. But the offices have now become outdated and are not sustainable. Vacancy levels in many offices are also high. In the recent period, Hyde Park has acquired more than 100,000 sq. m of office accommodation spread across 15 office buildings for demolition and new construction. There is space for a total of 3,000 to 4,000 homes. Hyde Park is set to become an attractive urban neighbourhood, offering owner-occupied and rental homes for various target groups. Streets and squares will be attractively landscaped, ensuring an excellent match with the quality of the architecture in the new residential buildings. From the station, there will be a safe and pleasant route to the centre of Hoofddorp.
International acclaim
Snippe Projecten is one of the initiators of Hyde Park. They already realised the successful Holland Park in Diemen Zuid and Campus Diemen Zuid, where a dilapidated office park made room for more than 3,000 homes. ‘Hyde Park will be more metropolitan, with an international appeal’, explains André Snippe. ‘That is only fitting for this area, which benefits from the amazing dynamism of both Schiphol and the Zuidas business district nearby. It is also thanks to this that we now have an internationally-acclaimed urban designer like Winy Maas from MVRDV on board in the project.’
IC Netherlands is the other partner in Hyde Park. In addition to the development, it will also purchase 700 affordable rental homes. Wouter van den Eijnden is CEO of IC Netherlands: ‘We have already realised various projects with affordable rents, primarily for students and young professionals. They include Little Manhattan next to Amsterdam’s Lelylaan railway station. In Hyde Park we will mainly be providing housing for young professionals who work at Schiphol or the Zuidas, for example.’ There is a major shortage of mid-range rental properties in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer. In addition to IC Netherlands, Hyde Park also offers opportunities for other investors.
The demolition work on the first office buildings is set to start later this year. The sales process will also be initiated this year. Construction is expected to start sometime in 2018. If all goes well, Hyde Park will have its first residents in late 2019.
