No five-star hotel in New Street

At the end of February this year, the municipality of Breda well-known That there were plans for a hotel in the former monastery on Nieuwstraat. Since I have been following the developments around the Nieuwstraat for some time, I wrote here a few weeks ago a column about. Then I was particularly concerned about whether the agreements made with the sisters in 1992 had been fulfilled. I was also frustrated by the fact that the municipality would not let me see the contracts from back then.

In recent weeks, through other avenues, I have had those contracts received and I have talked to many people involved. What now appears is that the preliminary sales contract between WSG and HERMON BV has in the meantime already been dissolved. It would involve the sale of Nieuwstraat which WSG sold to HERMON BV for 3.2 million euros. This is a remarkable amount because WSG bought it from the municipality a few years before for 1.6 million. After that, WSG received millions for renovation but actually did nothing more than leave things as they were.

What is also striking is that the municipality had included a clause in the contract with WSG that if WSG had not fulfilled its restoration obligations by 2010 WSG was obliged to offer the Nieuwstraat back to the municipality. Upon inquiry, I also understand that WSG did this at the last minute but the municipality of Breda refused this offer.

At the time of writing I still have some questions open with various agencies (including WSG and municipality). As soon as I have answers to these I will update this post. But the most pressing question of course... What is going to happen to New Street? Are we going to let the squalor continue?