The Belgian Football Union (known as “the URBSFA”) indicated yesterday (Wednesday) that it acknowledges Brussels City Council’s plans. These are to construct a running track where the Union’s head office is currently located. This is part of the framework of the Neo building project. The Union states that, for now, no official request to relocate has been supplied.
The spokesman for the URBSFA, Pierre Cornez, explains that such a document will only be prepared once Brussels City Council has updated the URBSFA of its intentions.
In the third and final phase of the Neo project on the Heysel Plateau, it seems that the City Council may wish to place a compulsory purchase order on the Belgian Football Union’s land. It appears that the aim is to locate a new athletics track for the Royal Excelsior Sports Club of Brussels on the same site.
This appeared in the Sport/Foot Magazine in its Wednesday edition (yesterday).
The “Maison de Verre” (the so-called “glasshouse”), located on Avenue Houba de Strooper, has been the URBSFA’s head office since 1989.
The Belgian Football Union owns the building and part of its adjoining football pitch. The rest of the property, which is used for employee parking, belongs to Brussels City Council.
The sports magazine details, that this is why the car park is never closed, even though it does allow members of the public to park there.
The Neo project anticipates a form of urban renewal for the Heysel Plateau.
Its first phase includes a shopping centre with an area of 72,000 m2, 9,000 m2 given over to the restaurant and catering industry, a cinema, an indoor playground, a theme park, 590 flats, a rest home, offices, an underground car park and green spaces.
The project developers hope to be able to lay the foundation stone by mid-2019.
A second phase anticipates the construction of a conference centre and a hotel before, within a third phase, implementing a new sports facility.
The Brussels Times
