The first phase of ING Real Estate's City Square mixed-use scheme in the Belgian city of Genk opened last week. The City Square project is a public-private partnership covering a large-scale reconstruction of the city centre. The first phase includes 19 retail units that are fully leased to a mix of international brands, including C&A, Mexx and The Body Shop.

The first phase of ING Real Estate's City Square mixed-use scheme in the Belgian city of Genk opened last week. The City Square project is a public-private partnership covering a large-scale reconstruction of the city centre. The first phase includes 19 retail units that are fully leased to a mix of international brands, including C&A, Mexx and The Body Shop.

The partnership comprises the City of Genk, ING Real Estate and Belgian developers Democo and Cordeel. The total scheme of 29 shops over 15,500 m2 of retail space has been sold to Dutch property company Redevco. Other features include a 752-space underground car park sold to Q-Park, 99 apartments and a four-star design hotel operated by the Different Hotel Group. The City of Genk is building a new City Library and has taken responsibility for the construction of three new public squares.

The second phase of 10 retail units and the hotel are scheduled to open in March-April 2008. The City Library will open in autumn 2008. The apartments will be also delivered in the course of next year.

Menno Maas, CEO ING Real Estate Development, said: 'The Genk City Square project is yet another example of inner city regeneration, combining retail space, cultural functions and public space. We applied the know how we built up over the years in similar projects in Nijmegen, Groningen, Haarlem, Leeuwarden in the Netherlands as well in Hull in the UK, and Stuttgart, Germany.'