The Royal Circus, currently under renovation, will reopen in September, the alderman in charge of housing management in the Brussels City Council, Mohamed Ouriaghli, said on Monday evening. The performance hall has been closed since last summer. It had been managed until the 30th of June 2017 by the non-profit Le Botanique centre. However, the City of Brussels was involved in a tussle with the non-profit association and, on the 29th of June last, the Appeal Court banned the municipality from implementing a concession arrangement with Brussels Expo, to which it had decided to award the management of the performance hall.
Then, on the 3rd of August, the Council of State banned the municipality from handing over the management of the Royal Circus to Brussels Expo under a precarious occupation agreement that would have allowed Brussels Expo to do urgent work on the premises and manage the shows that were programmed, pending a final ruling.
The compliance work, estimated at 3.6 million euros, was therefore handled by the city’s Housing Management department.
Queried at a meeting of the City Council on Monday evening, Mohamed Ouriaghli said compliance work on the interior of the performance hall had been completed. Renovation work on the outside of the building, currently underway, should be finished by the 30th of June.
Ouriaghli added that the hall would reopened in September. It will be managed by the City’s Housing Management department, which has launched an invitation to tender. The candidate or candidates selected will be invited to sign an indefinite-duration work contract compliant with the scales that apply to the city.
The Brussels Times
