From 13 to 16 March, the Brussels-Capital Region will take the opportunity in Cannes to showcase its initiatives to develop the productive city of tomorrow, its new urban planning tools for regional development and, in collaboration with the private sector, the new creative district mediapark.brussels.
The Brussels-Capital Region has a long history of participation in MIPIM, and since 2015 has presented itself there at a Belgium Pavilion co-financed with Wallonia and Flanders, which raises the profile of all three Belgian Regions.
As the Belgian and European capital and a city of international stature, it is right for Brussels to be present at this key professional gathering of the real estate sector. Over the years, depending on what is topical, it has promoted its regional development ambitions, its major urban projects, the talents of its architects, the exemplary achievements of its public bodies, private investment opportunities within its territory and so on. And of course, given that MIPIM is an important annual networking fixture, it also listens attentively to other voices in the real estate sector.
Shared public- and private-sector ambitions for mediapark.brussels
On Thursday 15 March, at the traditional ‘Breakfast in Brussels’ which is attended by several hundred real estate professionals every year, the Urban Development Corporation (sau-msi.brussels) will take the unusual step of involving the private sector in a presentation entitled ‘mediapark.brussels: investment opportunities, public projects and private involvements in Brussels’ future new creative district’. The event will be jointly organised with perspective.brussels and hub.brussels.
Cécile Jodogne, the Brussels-Capital Region’s State Secretary for Foreign Trade, will present the opportunities for investment in real estate in Brussels, with a specific focus on the creative and audiovisual sector and in particular on mediapark.brussels.
Gilles Delforge, Director of the Urban Development Corporation, and Tom Sanders, Director of the Territorial Strategy Department at perspective.brussels, will present the organisation and time-frame of urban planning and regional development in this zone. The ambition of the Brussels-Capital Region is to develop around the future new headquarters of Belgian public broadcasters RTBF and VRT a new Brussels district of exceptional quality – creative, diverse and vibrant – with some 2,000 to 2,500 new dwellings, local facilities and services (a nursery, a school, shops, etc.), space for creative businesses, an 8-hectare park and so on.
Various owners, investors, and private-sector real estate developers will explain their involvement in these shared ambitions and their specific projects in this district of Brussels. As some of them are not present at MIPIM, the SAU-MSI has produced and will be screening a video with six very concrete examples that show that the development of mediapark.brussels is underway, including construction work on dwellings including ground-floor premises for the production of intangible goods; various specialised coworking spaces for the communication, media, audiovisual, technology and related sectors; the recent establishment of a recording studio for the provision of training in dubbing; and the addition of services to office buildings.
The Urban Development Corporation will also present the media house Frame, one of the first new buildings to be constructed in mediapark.brussels. This will be a flagship building in this new district, housing the new headquarters of three operators in the media and communication sectors (regional television channel BX1, screen.brussels and the IHECS Academy) as well as an innovation platform dedicated to the media and audiovisual sector and featuring co-working spaces and incubator for startups among other facilities.
The master architect of the Brussels-Capital Region, Kristiaan Borret, will outline the ambitions of the Region in terms of quality of architecture for this new district.
Manufacturing in the city to manufacture the city
On Wednesday 14 March, citydev.brussels give a lecture entitled ’Manufacturing in the city to manufacture the city’. Benjamin Cadranel, CEO of citydev.brussels, and Philippe Antoine, General Manager for Economic Expansion at citydev.brussels, will provide an update on citydev.brussels' current and future strategies for promoting the establishment of productive economic activities. These strategies will be illustrated with concrete examples of projects recently completed or still under development.
New urban planning tools
Wednesday 14 March will also see the presentation by Brussels Urbanism and Heritage and perspective.brussels of the new urban planning tools of regional development in Brussels.
Bety Waknine, the director of Brussels Urbanism and Heritage, will give a lecture entitled ‘The new urbanism - New procedures, new methods’, in which she addresses the questions raised in the real estate sector by the creation of this new government agency and the recent reform of the Brussels Territorial Development Code (CoBAT-BWRO).
Tom Sanders, Director of the Territorial Strategy Department at perspective.brussels, will give a talk entitled ‘Why “PAD/RPA”?’, in which he describes the characteristics of the Territorial Development Plan (PAD-RPA) and reports on the latest developments, as this tool is currently being used in various regional strategic zones, including Hermann-Debroux, Gare de l’Ouest and Maximilien.
Practical details: www.surrealestate.be
