On 31 March 2014, the City of Brussels Council (as long lessor) resolved to hold a public call for tenders with a view to awarding a long lease agreement to a private partner for part or all of the lands known as ‘Parking C’ of the Heysel. This is a conditional long lease, which means inter alia that the private partner, as a long lessee, will be responsible for building and operating a football stadium (or having it operated) on the lands given under long lease.
On 31 March 2014, the City of Brussels Council (as long lessor) resolved to hold a public call for tenders with a view to awarding a long lease agreement to a private partner for part or all of the lands known as ‘Parking C’ of the Heysel. This is a conditional long lease, which means inter alia that the private partner, as a long lessee, will be responsible for building and operating a football stadium (or having it operated) on the lands given under long lease.
The total surface of the land owned by the City of Brussels amounts to approximately 26 hectares. Over the coming years, the area surrounding Parking C will be the subject of an ambitious real estate development in the context of the development and regeneration of the Heysel Plateau. This will include the construction of a shopping centre, apartments, offices, a convention centre and a hotel in different phases.
The City of Brussels will present the football stadium the private partner is to build as ‘host stadium’ in the City of Brussels' bid to be selected as ‘host city’ for the European Football Championships in 2020 (UEFA 2020). The football stadium, with a capacity of around 50.000 seats, must therefore be completed in time and must meet UEFA requirements. The City of Brussels also requires that the football stadium be used by a football team (normally appearing in the Belgian league) to hold its home matches, so the stadium will be in use constantly, independent from any involvement in UEFA 2020.
The public call for tenders is in two phases: the selection phase (subject to selection guidelines) and the award phase (subject to the bidding guidelines to be presented to the applicants selected).
The public call for tenders is being organised in response to requests by various parties involved in the market to be granted (construction) rights to the lands known as ‘Parking C’, with a view to building and operating a football stadium on this site. In issuing this public call for tenders, the City of Brussels aims to meet the demand in the market, but also to comply with European and national law rules and principles on access to government assets and contracts. The agreement to be awarded is however neither a government contract (for works or services) nor a concession for public works - the City of Brussels acts merely as long lessor.
The selection guidelines are available on www.brussels.be/8235. The closing date for applications is 12 May 2014.
