Last Sunday, 30th of june, squatters occupied a vacant building in Amsterdam Noord.
First a pharmacy, then a pizzeria, and for a short while a bike storage, the building on the Statenjachtstraat 598 has been empty now since around 2015
In the end of 2015 it was already squatted, the owner at the time seemed a bit dodgy, the squatters were being harassed by workers.
In may 2019 the building has been bought by 2 real estate traders that have not been sitting still the last years, Axel Veldboom[1] en Frans Blom. Mainly active in Groningen and Enschede, together they own more then 300 buildings.
Axel started his real estate career in 2015, and managed to acquire 130 buildings in de the past 4 years. He is known from a scandal in Enschede, where he managed in a sneaky way to get permits to build a student flat in the middle of a neighbourhood. [2] Thanks to some neighbors that stood up for themselves, recently a judge decided that the flat needs to be torn down.
About Frans we don’t know too much, except that he owns 144 buildings in the Netherlands.
The building has been bought for 2.2 million euros, an exceptionally high amount for a building that is supposed to be worth around 1 million euros [4] Of course the north of Amsterdam is booming business, so maybe they are expecting to be able to put a apartment complex or something alike. To get all the permits will however take a while.
The action went smooth, police arrived pretty quickly and confirmed that the house was squatted. After a sort dialog they decided to leave.
The previous owner showed up almost immediately with some vague stories. First he said that e was still the owner, then he said that he was renting it from the new owners and using it as a storage. Unfortunately for him, the cops didnt really pay to much attention.
The neighbourhood is very positive about the action, lots of people came to tell us that they are happy that finally something is happening with the building that is rotting away in the middle of their neighbourhood.
[1] https://www.tubantia.nl/enschede/groningse-projectontwikkelaars-succesvo…
[2] https://vanwieisdestad.nl/axel-veldboom/
[3] https://verzettegendeflat.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/in-beeld-de-balistraa…
[4] https://amsterdam.kadasterdata.nl/statenjachtstraat/598
