Bouwinvest has officially opened its 27,500 m2 'Nowadays' high street redevelopment project in the centre of Amsterdam.
The city's mayor cut the ribbon on the €65 mln transformation of 70 & 80 Damrak, now linked by a high arched gallery to a property on Nieuwendijk.
'Nowadays is the jewel in the crown of the Bouwinvest Dutch Retail Fund and the realisation of this project marks a major step in the regeneration of the historic downtown Amsterdam area as part of the city’s ‘Red Carpet’ plan,' commented Bouwinvest CEO, Dick van Hal. 'We’ve worked closely with developer Top Vastgoed, contractors Dura Vermeer and De Nijs, and the municipality in successfully achieving our target of converting previous secondary office and retail properties into prime core real estate in a very technically challenging redevelopment,' he added.
Representing the largest high street retail development in the country, Nowadays combines two buildings on the Damrak, the avenue linking Amsterdam's central station to the main Dam Square, with a third on the parallel Nieuwendijk (196), that runs into the Kalverstraat, the busiest shopping street in the country.
The two thoroughfares are joined by the completely transformed ‘Beurspassage’, previously a shabby pedestrian tunnel, which has now been converted into a high arched gallery and permanent public exhibition space.
Tenants include Amsterdam’s first Primark and a flagship Zara store, a completely renovated C&A store, which originally opened at this location in the 1930s.
Amsterdam’s Red Carpet urban regeneration plan encompasses the downtown gateway area of the city usually seen first by visitors coming from the main railway station and cruise liner terminal, and lies along the route of the new North-South metro line due to open in 2018.
Other elements of the plan include the improvement of the Beursplein square on the Damrak next to Amsterdam’s largest department store the Bijenkorf, with new food and beverage outlets, the gentrification of the city’s neighbouring 'Red Light District', and a substantial upgrade to the Rokin street on the east side of the Dam square, which will become the location for a department store from Canada’s Hudson Bay Group.
