Business park Ter Borch on the edge of the municipality of Tynaarlo offers Holland Casino the best opportunity to build a casino that meets the architectural and sustainability requirements that the company sets. Moreover, the location at the gateway to Groningen is very easily accessible for guests and there is ample parking. Holland Casino is pleased that after the 2017 fire, it can finally look forward again. After the casino at the Gedempte Kattendiep in the centre of the city of Groningen was completely destroyed by a fire, Redept assisted Holland Casino in recent years in identifying and investigating possible locations for a definitive casino that meets Holland Casino’s specific requirements as well as possible.

“Finding a suitable location is not easy. Not only does a casino have a very specific programme of requirements, there are also specific requirements for the location. The public law destination must be appropriate and the location must also be able to be built on in the short term,” said Leon van Leersum of Redept. “After the fire, Holland Casino opened a temporary branch at Sontplein. It has been there for more than five years now and the casino would like to be able to receive its guests again in a fully-fledged casino.” The undeveloped land on the Gedempte Kattendiep also played a role in this. Without clarity about a new location, this location was under consideration to rebuild the casino and could not yet be released. Now that there is clarity about the new location, a new solution can finally be worked on for the former location. We are now discussing this with the municipality of Groningen. The location requires a beautiful new inner-city development.

Early in the search process it became clear that reconstruction of the casino on the Gedempte Kattendiep was not preferred by either Holland Casino or the municipality of Groningen, partly due to the municipal policy to make the city centre car-free. Many Holland Casino guests come by car and that is why a search was made for locations that are easily accessible, both from the city and from the region.

Over the past five years, intensive work was done with the municipality of Groningen to identify a suitable location within the municipality. Several plans were developed and analysed for this purpose. One of the plans was at the corner of Sontplein, where the Van der Molen garage once was, and is now Daka Sport. After a long process with the owner of the location and the municipality, it turned out that no agreement could be reached on the urban development principles. Although the municipality subsequently provided various locations, these ultimately turned out to be unsuitable. The reasons for this are that these could not be realised in the short term, the accessibility was not optimal, because it is part of a complex multifunctional development, or because there were other urban development challenges.

When at the end of 2022 there was still no prospect of a suitable location in Groningen, Redept further expanded the search beyond the municipal boundaries. This left two places: Business Park Ter Borch and P2 at the Europapark, right next to the Euroborg. “The decisive factor,” according to Petra de Ruiter, CEO of Holland Casino, “was that we can design, build and furnish our own building in Ter Borch, the way we want. We would have become a tenant in a multifunctional building at the Europapark.” .

The location that has now been chosen fits well with the wishes of Holland Casino: it can realise an independent and sustainable building that is easily accessible. The new branch to be built is located in the Ter Borch business park, in a beautiful and prominent location on the A7 at the entrance to the city of Groningen. The casino will have a size of approximately 4,100 m² on a plot of approximately 9,000 m² and is expected to open its doors to guests in 2027. It is still unclear what exactly the new casino will look like.

Redept advised Holland Casino on location selection, spatial studies, financial analyses, negotiating the purchase agreement and carrying out due diligence. Redept was previously involved as an advisor to Holland Casino for locations including Utrecht, Scheveningen and Eindhoven. Dev_ real estate advised on the construction costs in this transaction and is responsible for the architect selection and the tender.