The Antwerp car servicing group Beerens breathes new life into the former Opel plant at the Noorderlaan with a new site for its Belcar daughter to prepare some 100 000 new and second-hand leased cars a year for the market. Announced in February 2021, the site is reopening on Thursday after renovation, which included 20 000 square meters of green roofs.

Founder Erwin Beerens (52) hopes to find the 500 people he’ll need to accomplish that in his new venue, which will be as big as the current headquarters of what’s now called ‘Belcar South’ in Aartselaar, which faces a lack of space.

Last Opel built in 1988

The old, 100 000 square meters Opel Plant 1 at the Noorderlaan dates back to 1953 when production started of Opels, Vauxhalls, and Bedford trucks. The Opel Ascona was the last model to roll off the production lines before the new – bigger – plant in the harbor opened in 1988. Until then some 3 000 people have been working here. After that, the building was used as parking.

The Beerens Group used to be one of the biggest dealers in Antwerp for the Volkswagen Group with brands VW, Audi, Seat, and Skoda until these activities were taken over by Belgian Volkswagen importer D’Ieteren some ten years ago.

Electric bikes

Since then, Beerens is still active as a dealer for Opel, Toyota, and Nissan and in real estate. In 2020, Erwin Beerens announced he saw a window of opportunity in new and second-hand electric bikes. Still, the consolidation in the bicycle market he hoped for came out slower than expected, so he confined to the newspaper De Tijd.

But the main activity remains with Belcar, ‘refurbishing’ end-of-contract lease cars for the second-hand market, preparing and delivering new cars for leasing companies or car manufacturers working without a dealer network, like some Chinese brands.

Darts, carting, and golf

In the next phase, Beerens wants to set up an Xperience Factory on the upper floors of the building with room for sports like darts, ax throwing, ‘tech infused’ golf, and an indoor carting circuit expanded over three floors.