Bart Meijer in VG Visie: “Amsterdam becomes towards West truly one city”

"What has grown historically in the centre of Amsterdam we are taking with us to Nieuw-West" said Bart Meijer in VG Vision Amsterdam Property Week. MRP, is particularly active in the Randstad and develops many mixed-use projects in inner-city environments, such as in Amsterdam. This also involves a mix of housing from social to free sector, projects MIX Amsterdam and AMST in Amsterdam are good examples of this says Bart Meijer. He is enthusiastic about the great dynamism in Amsterdam. 'The city is jumping over the Westas.' Read here the whole Dutch article about Bart Meijer's vision of developments in general and specific in Amsterdam.                                            

Bart Meijer in MRP Office in WFC Amsterdam   

Challenges in Amsterdam

MRP's latest project, the AMST mixed-use project, has just been completed opposite Amstel Station. A beautiful, eye-catching complex in a super urban location with 252 apartments, mostly in the middle rental segment. Bart: 'We made a lot of people very happy with that.' But it wasn't easy, he says. 'If you build nice big apartments in such a location that are also affordable, you do run into some challenges. The largest apartments are 160 square metres, really beautiful though. There is a large supermarket underneath, restaurants and the AMST Parking car park. It started with the contracting costs, in 2019 there was a huge demand and it was very difficult to come to a reasonable agreement with a contractor. That was actually the most difficult part of the project. In the end, we went with Heddes Bouw & Ontwikkeling, part of Ballast Nedam, and without them it really would never have worked out, I really mean that. They worked six days a week to deliver everything exactly on the day.' So this is an important reason to realise mixed-use in a city, says Bart. 'With the apartments, you have to break even, especially with those high construction costs. It's the other functions that you then come out with as a developer. Purely the apartmenrs have not been profitable for us, we needed the whole package for a healthy business case.

Download the full article here.