Danish construction and urban development company A. Enggaard and pension fund PKA have entered into a purchase agreement with state-owned Freja Properties for the shuttered Vridsløselille Prison in Albertslund, Denmark, which will be transformed into a residential district.
Financial details were not disclosed.
A. Enggaard and PKA have formed a joint company called PKAE for the venture, which will redevelop the 160,000 m2 plot in the centre of Albertslund, a municipal area situated just outside Copenhagen.
Freja Properties took over the 160-year-old prison in 2016, when the last prisoner left the site. The regeneration plans include creating new housing plus community amenities.
Morten Løgsted, project development manager at A. Enggaard, said: 'We are pleased that together with PKA we have entered into an agreement on such an attractive and historic site as Vridsløselille Prison, which is located in the heart of Albertslund.
'We are very much looking forward to the further collaboration with, among others, Albertslund Municipality and Freja Properties on the urban development of the area, so we can create the right framework for a new and vibrant district with attractive housing, communal facilities and inviting urban and outdoor spaces.'
The CEO of PKA, Jon Johnsen, added: 'Albertslund has been undergoing a really positive development in recent years. The city has a vibrant business and cultural life, and we are only half an hour from Copenhagen's town hall square.
'Together with A. Enggaard, we look forward to creating a cohesive district with a focus on community, sustainability and association life. It will accommodate homes for all ages, and it will contribute to the surrounding city.'
The transformation of Vridsløselille Prison follows other recent collaborations between A. Enggaard and PKA, including the development of a new district on the old slaughterhouse site in Odense, as well as the launch of new districts such as Brokvarteret and Skejbyen in Aarhus plus parts of the new freight train district in Aalborg.
Freja Eiendom and Albertslund Municipality have now launched an architectural competition in the form of a parallel assignment between five teams of architects to determine the final masterplan, with a decision expected in mid-September.
