The city of Antwerp covers a loan of 42 million euros for a wealthy building developer

The Council for Social Welfare of Antwerp gave Monday evening, March 25, 2024, his blessing for a ‘four-party agreement’ between the City AntwerpIt OCMW Antwerp, Botanical Estate nv and the German bank Aareal Bank AG.

Subject of the agreement: a loan of 42 million euros to Botanic Estate, the company that owns the five-star hotel Botanical Sanctuary built and operates the Elzenveld in Antwerp. If Botanic Estate can no longer repay its loan, the German bank can seek redress from the city.

The Council for Social Welfare is the board of directors of the OCMW and is composed of the 55 members of the municipal council in Antwerp. Joris Giebens, a councilor for Groen, voted against the four-party agreement. “By agreeing to that agreement, the city and the OCMW are helping their leaseholder Botanic Estate with a loan of 42 million euros,” he says.

Antwerp councilor Joris Giebens (Green): ‘I do not understand why Antwerp guarantees a leaseholder who commits construction violations and then continues to delay in undoing them’

“Only the leaseholder on the Elzenveld committed numerous construction violations and a violation of the regulations regarding immovable heritage. To date, nothing has been remedied. Botanic Estate submitted a regularization application, after which the city issued a permit on the condition that a number of violations would be demolished. For example, the large steel arches at the entrance to Leopoldstraat must be removed and a veranda must be removed.”

“Until today, Botanic Estate has not taken any initiative to meet those conditions. I do not understand why Antwerp stands surety for a leaseholder who commits construction violations and then continues to delay in undoing them. If that four-party agreement can be justified, the city council can use them to first have Botanic Estate make tabula rasa.”

Also PVDA councilor Mie Burners voted against. “I asked the competent councilor three times Annick The Knight (N-VA) to bring all construction violations back to Botanic Estate. Why don’t you first demand that they be repaired before you sign such a mortgage construction? De Ridder didn’t make a sound.”

The Vooruit councilors voted along with their colleagues from the majority. “This is a usual agreement in case of leasehold,” clarifies Rebecca By Remoorterespokesperson for Vooruit ships Tatyana Scheck.

Wealthy building developer

Botanic Estate nv is a vehicle of the 79-year-old real estate promoter Eric The Moisturewhose fortune is estimated at more than 270 million euros by the specialized website Richest Belgians.

In October 2017, De Vochts became a company IRET from the Antwerp city council for a 66-year lease on the Elzenveld site on Lange Gasthuisstraat in Antwerp. In exchange for a one-off payment of 3 million euros and an annual rent of 221,000 euros, IRET was allowed to exploit the historic site in the city center.

What happens if Botanic Estate cannot repay its 42 million euro loan?

On June 30, 2023, the general meeting of Botanic Estate approved the 2022 annual accounts. The year ended with a loss of 742,005 euros and a debt mountain of 136 million. The cumulative loss amounted to 2,241,816 euros.

What happens if Botanic Estate cannot repay its 42 million euro loan? Can the Aareal Bank from Wiesbaden then knock on the door of the city of Antwerp?

Joris Giebens fears so. “Because a mortgage has now been placed on the leasehold contract. If you read the four-party agreement carefully, it seems as if the bank can do everything in its power to get the money back from the credit. It will then receive the leasehold agreement in any case.”

“Several articles of the agreement hint that Aareal Bank may then look for a new leaseholder in order to regain that credit. This four-party agreement has been completely tailor-made for Botanic Estate. In my eleven-year career in the municipal council, I have never encountered anything like this. in return for.”

Accumulation of construction violations

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024, Giebens clashed for the first time about the four-party agreement with Annick De Ridder, as councilor for Spatial Planning and Heritage responsible for the Elzenveld site. In the municipal committee on Port, Urban Development, Spatial Planning and Heritage, she denied that the city is guarantor for the 42 million euro loan.

“This is about a case between a hotel operator and a developer who have created a gem together,” she said. According to De Ridder, the five-star hotel Botanic Sanctuary was built without money from a bank. “Now they apply for financing after the fact and we as a city intervene to establish a mortgage. This way we, as natural leaseholders and bare owners, can exercise our rights if things go wrong.”

Alderman Annick De Ridder (N-VA): ‘This is about a case between a hotel operator and a developer who have created a gem together’

Johan Bite beer of the action committee Stop Sale Antwerp finds the response of Alderman De Ridder in the committee “astonishing”. He calls the signing of the four-party agreement by the city of Antwerp “a disaster”.

“Construction promoter Eric De Vocht may have sensed an opportunity to negotiate a more or less favorable loan of 42 million euros for his luxury hotel with a German bank,” he suspects. “But because De Vocht has the land and the building on a long lease, he has no choice but to ask the city to make that deal possible.”

Bijttebier finds the approval of the four-party agreement a shame. “Precisely because the building promoter in this file piled up one construction violation after another. For example, an illegal canopy was built that undermines the life chances of a historically valuable Japanese ginkgo tree. That canopy should have been demolished long ago, but it is still there.”

“If you are dealing with such a hard-nosed construction offender, you as a leaseholder must take strict action against this. If the leaseholder then comes to you because he needs you to obtain a loan of 42 million euros, that is the Is this the perfect moment to demand that he first undo those many construction violations? But the city will now sign that four-party agreement dutifully and without any objections.”