Reopening MAKRO Machelen - Vondel District
Anyone visiting the former Makro Machelen site today for the first time would struggle to believe its condition just a few months ago. An abandoned Makro building, vacancies, a site that seemed to have left its best years behind. Today, together with Delhaize and Colos, we open a brand-new chapter here. And that chapter has a name: Vondel District.
Today marks a special day in a special place.
Anyone visiting the former Makro site in Machelen for the first time today would find it hard to believe what the site looked like just a few months ago. An abandoned Makro building, vacancy, a site that seemed to have seen its best years. Today, together with Delhaize and Colos, we are opening a brand new chapter here. And that chapter has a name: Vondel District.
That name was not chosen by chance. "Vondel" refers to the Vondelgracht, which will be reopened straight through this site. Where for decades concrete and paving blocked the passage of water, we are restoring the canal to its place — with a view to improving water retention capacity for the entire site. And "District" — because we don't just want to create a retail outlet here, but a lively, vibrant, multifunctional entity.
To make that possible today, we consciously chose not to let this site deteriorate. Together with our partners, we have addressed the existing buildings and given them a contemporary layout and purpose. COLOS, which opens its doors for the first time today, and Delhaize, which also starts today, are living proof of this. Later this year, we will also see an Albert Heijn open between these two.
But let this be clear: what you see today is an important step, not an endpoint. In the final phase of our master plan, we aim to completely rebuild this site in the medium term, in accordance with current building codes and the building shift. This includes stacked building, combining functions such as shopping, recreation, and working — consciously no residential — and a good distribution of activity, so that this place is pleasant to visit from Monday morning to Sunday evening. In this redevelopment, special attention will be paid to depaving: we want to more than double the water infiltration capacity of the site. In times of increasingly extreme weather and heavier rainfall, this is not a theoretical exercise but a concrete improvement that will prove its usefulness in the future. This same redevelopment also enables us to address the pressing energy issue that we are all heading towards, across the entire Vondel District. By combining different functions, a dispersed energy demand arises throughout the day and week, allowing us to strive for maximum balancing between demand and our own energy production.
This approach — first reopening existing buildings within existing permits, and only then realizing the definitive redevelopment — we are consciously rolling out across all six of our ex-Makro sites: four in Flanders, two in Wallonia. Machelen is the first site to effectively go live today. The others will follow, with the objective that the last site will have come to life by the second quarter of 2027. This prevents these sites from remaining empty and neglected for years, during the entire permitting process for the definitive redevelopment.
This also has a very tangible effect, which we are particularly proud of: through this thoughtful, rapid reopening, we can re-employ 125 people here in Machelen by the end of 2026. In economically challenging times, when we hear more about layoffs than hirings, that is something to be proud of. Employment and activity are and remain the backbone of our economy, and with Vondel District, we are making a concrete contribution to that today.
What personally touches me most about this project is how different ambitions come together here: economic recovery, climate resilience, energy efficiency, and vibrancy, all on one and the same site. It proves that the redevelopment of outdated commercial real estate does not have to wait until all permits for the final phase are secured. You can create value today, bring back jobs, and let a neighborhood breathe again, while simultaneously building the site of tomorrow.
A project like this cannot be realized alone. I therefore wish to explicitly express my gratitude to all partners and stakeholders who have contributed: the architects and contractors, the local authorities who have supported both the water project and the employment initiative, and of course COLOS and Delhaize, who today form part of the backdrop of this opening.
Vondel District is the first, visible step in a story that will continue to grow across all our sites in the coming years. I wish everyone who is opening their doors here today great success, and I invite everyone to come and take a look themselves later.
Dirk Deroose, CEO LCV Real Estate
