2023-11-15 16:06:42
An amusement park, production studios, real estate for biotechs, two data centers, padel courts… 31 investors have come forward to set up an activity on the Caterpillar site. Enough to supply a virtual pool of more than 12,000 jobs.
The future of the old Caterpillar site is played out in the coming weeks. There is no longer any question of waiting for a providential actor capable of taking over all of the 93 hectares. Since the failures of the Thunder Power (Chinese electric cars) and Legoland (amusement park) files, the file managers have had to admit that it was very complicated to keep the entire site in one piece. So place at fragmentation…
31
investors
The call for expressions of interest launched around the reconversion of the former Caterpillar site made it possible to target 31 projects in different sectors.
Division into three zones
The principle has been implemented since this summer. The 93 hectares will be divided into three parts in order to develop economic activity, accommodate an extension of the Biopark near Gosselies and possibly develop a leisure area there with the result of an amusement park smaller in size than that imagined by Merlin, the shareholder of Legoland.
On paper, the program is attractive. It remains to sleep there company name. This was the objective of a call for expressions of interest launched by the Walloon Region and Soresic (the public company which owns the site and co-owned by Igretec and Wallonie Entreprendre). In surveying market interest until last Friday, the idea was to wake up some investors, confirm others which had manifested themselves in the past, in order to move forward in the development of the master plan by the end of 2023. “This master plan is actually planned for the end of the year and it must be used to define the large masses to guide the project. But everything will remain flexible”, explains Igretec, the economic development intermunicipal association of Charleroi.
As Igretec explains to us, this call for expressions of interest remains a non-binding document and open to other businesses. Some actors would not have responded but are clearly interested. “They didn’t want to appear today,” tells us a person involved in the case.
Full screen view The 93 hectare site abandoned by Caterpillar will be divided into three centers to accommodate biotech, leisure and various economic activities.
A windfall of 12,000 jobs
According to initial indications, 31 companies submitted a file during this call for demonstrations. “It’s a great success,” rejoices a person close to the file. Who do we find in this list that we were able to consult? Well, a bit of everything, ranging from logistics to leisure with also industrial projects and real estate equipment for the world of biotech. Placed end to end, All of the projects included on this list would create more than 12,000 jobs. This figure is obviously virtual, but it demonstrates the interest of investors for the site and the need for Wallonia to accelerate the clean-up of former industrial wastelands to welcome economic development actors. “We will have to make choices and we don’t really have any alternatives to offer in terms of land available to locate certain projects elsewhere. Today, the largest land available in Charleroi is 5 hectares,” we regret. in Charleroi.
“We will have to make choices and we don’t really have any alternatives to offer in terms of available land to locate certain projects elsewhere.”
Hollywood on Sambre
Time for projects. Let’s start from leisure component. The most emblematic project is obviously the Spirou amusement park. The file submitted by Editions Dupuis covers both leisure with attractions around the Spirou universe, and creativity. Maison Dupuis wants to create with other players, such as the Magic Loom and Dreamwall studios, an ecosystem of activities around the production of video games and cinema..
Housed in one of the old Caterpillar buildings, this super studio de production carolo would bring together cutting-edge technologies such as motion capture and virtual production. This leisure/studio complex would create around a hundred jobs during a first phase but the relocation of activities from Marcinelle to Gosselies would make it possible to quickly double the workforce.
Alongside Spirou, there are other projects such as an indoor leisure park with around a hundred jobs, a fell or the development of virtual reality rooms.
The big promoters at the meeting
The announcement of the expansion of the Charleroi Biopark has awakened the interest of large promoters specializing in the development real estate and logistics projects such as Castignac Asset Management, MG Real Estate ou LCP Belgium with promises of thousands of jobs in biotech and other industrial sectors. “Developing large areas will allow us to attract major players. Recently, we were asked for 45,000 m² to do bioproduction. Unfortunately we had to decline lack of currently available space”, analyzes Dominique Demonte, the CEO of the Biopark.
“Recently, we were asked for 45,000 m² to carry out bioproduction. Unfortunately, we had to decline due to lack of available space.”
Dominique Demonté
CEO of Biopark
The whole challenge, faced with these developers attracted by the available space, will be to ensure the achievement of certain objectives. “We will have to force them to create jobs with deadlines, the obligation to create production activity. We want the names of the end customers and not just the promise of a logistics project”, insists a person close to the file.
The third part of the site has also generated numerous expressions of interest with projects in the cartwo data centersa unit of urban biomethanizationtransport, reconditioning of truck engines towards electric, a hotel coupled with coworkingbuildings for SMEs,… “The calls for projects will be launched at the beginning of 2024. It will then be necessary to remediate the site, demolish certain buildings. But all this can be implemented quickly depending on the sector plan”, we assure at Igretec.
The summary
Abandoned by Caterpillar, the 93 hectares of the Gosselies site will be distributed around three centers. Those responsible for the reconversion recently launched a call for expressions of interest from the market in order to target potential projects. 31 investors submitted an application.
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