by Olivier Beherman

Fancy managing a business in a modern SME park in the new heart of an old city?
Soon you will be able to do just that in the city of Mechelen, where the Beherman Group, Vulsteke Bedrijfsgebouwen and real estate agent DGI joined forces for the development of an SME area in the Ragheno park.

The entire Ragheno area covers almost 80 hectares, consisting partly of former industrial sites, in the near vicinity of the railway station of Mechelen. The city of Mechelen hopes to be able to transform this area in the near future into a new, modern city district where people will be happy to work, live and relax. The city of Mechelen selected design agencies KCAP Architects & Planners, Arcadis and OKRA as a team to prepare the masterplan for the Ragheno site.

The Beherman Group owns 11 hectares of land in the planning area through its 100% subsidiary Park Ragheno NV. On the edge of the development area, the group also has a cluster of buildings which are used for storage, business activities and as offices. Next to the existing buildings lies a large plot of undeveloped land.

This undeveloped site shall be turned into a new centre for small and medium-sized companies within a time frame of one year. The planning preparations have been made and completed.

Architect firm Archi.des NV found that the site could harbour fourteen modern units for small or medium-sized companies. The units vary in size from 363 to 456 square metres, are all 7 metres high and can be built, if required, with a top-floor area of 52 to 101 square metres. The different unit sizes were selected, because there is a commercial interest in them.
 

 

The developer and contractor Vulsteke from Kortemark and architect Archi.des deliberately chose multiple building variants. These will give the business park extra flair and a luxurious appearance. There is, for example, one variant with a separate entrance and gate, identical windows on both the first and second floor and a skylight. The second variant has a projecting façade with a lean-to which accentuates the entrance even more. Variant three also has a projecting façade, but with a saw-tooth roof which provides the entire building with indirect sunlight.

Every unit has at least an isolated sectional gate of 4 metres wide and 4.20 metres high, a sanitary block and its own storage room.

Each unit has parking space for three cars. The site will also have two special parking places for disabled persons. The initiators for Ragheno park contacted car company Tesla, which has said to be interested in installing two charging stations for electrical cars at the SME area. Furthermore, between the modern units there is enough room for adequate access roads, parking spaces for visitors and landscaping consisting of trees, bushes and shrubbery.

Since all planning procedures were completed, it is to be expected that developer Vulsteke will even be able to start with the construction of the modern and sustainable units this year (2016). The units will be ready for use by mid 2017. The prices for the new business units in the Ragheno park will be highly competitive. Further details are yet to be revealed.

Business people who think that the new heart of the old city of Mechelen is the place for them to undertake new journeys and who are interested in the new SME park Ragheno can request additional information from the exclusive real estate broker DGI.

DGI bvba
Marina de Groof
Mechelsesteenweg 200
2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver
www.DGI.immo
015 55 68 28
marina.degroof@dgi.immo