The first plots of land belonging to the bankrupt bus manufacturer Van Hool in Koningshooikt, Lier, are up for sale. Interested parties can purchase 30 hectares of industrial land via the Biddit website. Bidding starts on June 8, with a starting price of 20 million euros.

The question is whether there will be a single large buyer or whether the site will be divided among various SMEs. In any case, the remediation costs may be a barrier for potential buyers.

One buyer?

The Ford Genk site, Renault Vilvoorde, and, more recently, Audi Vorst/Forrest: each represents a separate chapter in the history of the decline of the Belgian automotive manufacturing industry, but also in the challenges facing industrial reconversion.

And just as with the other sites that once employed thousands of people, the question now arises: what will happen to the Van Hool sites after the high-profile bankruptcy, now that the receivers are trying to sell the real estate to pay the creditors of the bankrupt Van Hool?

Will there be one large buyer, such as the Dutch VDL Group or the South African GRW (the Trailer and Semi-Trailer Division, part of the German company Schmitz Cargobull), which currently rents parts of the site for production, or will the site be divided up for various SMEs?

‘Strategic land’

“This is strategic land,” says Tom Laveren of the Voka Mechelen-Kempen business network, who believes that the auction sale of the 30 hectares of land in Koningshooikt, where Van Hool used to build its buses (with more than 2,300 jobs), will give the local economy a serious boost.

“The total annual demand for industrial land is 15 hectares in the district of Mechelen. We must therefore aim for the greatest possible activity. And not divide this piece of land into several small plots after the sale.

In other words, Voka would rather see one large player employing 1,000 people on 30 hectares, plus suppliers, than 30 companies each employing roughly 10 people.

Cost of soil remediation

However, one stumbling block could well be the cost of soil remediation. When a major industrial player leaves a site, it creates a “brownfield”: a heavily polluted site that needs to be repurposed.

Because decades of metalworking have taken place there, solvents have been used in the paint shops, and heavy machinery has been stationed there, the soil is often seriously contaminated, something the sellers explicitly mention.

The sales documents state that large parts of the site, including plots where the bus factory was located, are risk sites within the meaning of the Soil Decree.

For many plots, such as parking lots and factory areas, OVAM states, based on descriptive soil investigations conducted in 2016, that no further soil remediation or measures are required at present, given the current use of the land.

However, if a new buyer wishes to redevelop the sites, the cost of treating contaminated soil be borne entirely by the buyer. A sensitive issue here is that each plot of land is listed as contaminated with PFAS, which means buyers must check the status and any restrictions on the official Flemish PFAS website.

Brownfield Covenant

It is therefore expected that the buyer will apply for a Brownfield Covenant. In that case, the Flemish government will offer guarantees or assist with financing remediation to enable redevelopment, or the buyer will be exempted from certain procedures that would delay redevelopment.

The deadline for the current round is April 2026.