2023-06-04 12:00:00
Between the parasols, a spring breeze sweeps the tables protected by thick glass. The eye flies over the Botanical Park, the central boulevards, the cathedral, and lands in Pajottenland. No doubt thanks to the idea of transforming the roof of an austere monofunctional office tower into a restaurant terrace.
Is the rooftop of the Victoria Tower the most beautiful in Brussels? Maybe. In any case, it inaugurates what promoters and authorities jointly describe as “the renewal of the North district”. With a hotel from the British chain The Hoxton and its two restaurants, a developing coworking center and the headquarters of WPP, a multinational communications company repatriating 1,000 Belgian employees there, the former IBM tower opened its doors in Saint-Josse on May 22, 2023.
For the municipality bordering the small belt, it is a godsend. “With The Hoxton, we can count on an annual revenue of one million euros for Saint-Josse”, assesses the Mayor Emir Kir, a piece of the inauguration cord just slipped into his jacket pocket. “With the Sheraton, we even hope for a million and a half to two million,” he estimates. This pillar of Place Rogier must indeed be resuscitated at the end of 2023. The promoter DWNTWN boasts of its former IBM tower as “open to the neighborhood”. What its forecourt of red cobblestones and the entrances on 3 sides must favor. The mayor admits that the varied profiles that will populate the former police headquarters “will be ambassadors for Saint-Josse. This is also how we contribute to living together and to security”.
The Hoxton, a trendy tenant whose letters stand out like Scrabble pawns on the ivory facade, has made this opening a leitmotif. The London multinational is known for targeting neglected neighborhoods which it claims to be driving change. “In the street where we settled in Paris, there was nothing. Now there is a Michelin star”, boasts Chaim Scheepers, managing director. Will the recipe proven in London, Portland, Amsterdam or Rome take hold in Brussels? “I have travelled a lot. I’ve seen hotel lobbies where you don’t dare ask if you can have a beer. We are an ‘open house’. We like that local residents come to see us. If our 198 rooms are occupied by two customers and they are all together in our two restaurants, there will still be places left”, promises the manager. “The catering industry sometimes hunts down those who stay for hours on their computer while drinking 3 coffees. We love it!” However, we doubt that the residents of the brutalist tower will regularly toast with customers at 230€ per night on the rooftop with its rococo chic decor. Instead, Kir sees the hotel as a job opportunity. “In partnership, we have organized a job fair”, he opines. “Which affected more than a hundred participants, some of whom were engaged”. This hiring process is not yet complete.
On the regional side, the Secretary of State for Town Planning Pascal Smet (Vooruit) salutes the nerve of the hotel chain in its choice of the northern district. “Others didn’t dare”. The socialist sees it as “the beginning of a real rooftop district”. He points out: “Compared to other European cities, we are downright behind in terms of the diversity of the towers and the accessibility of their terraces”. We know Smet’s ambition for the North district where he wants to breathe life following office hours, in particular by conditioning the reconversion permits on the establishment of housing, shops or services. Accommodation is therefore planned at the CCN of the Gare du Nord, in one of the Proximus towers and another at the WTC. As for the panoramic views, Smet therefore cites the former Sheraton, but also the hotel The Standard in 2024 at the ZIN (ex-WTC), the DoubleTree (Hilton) place Rogier and widens to the Center Monnaie. “There’s going to be nightlife, people will eat, DJs will play.” What regarding cohabitation with the new inhabitants? “We won’t have to play hard until 2am”. The misadventure of the Fuse obviously remains in memory. What if a club started playing on the 22nd floor of a tower?
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