On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, we moved into the former police station on the Van Schuylenburgweg. After a year of vacancy and dilapidation in the hands of Hoedemakers Ontwikkeling, the building finally has a destination as a place to live and activities. We want to use this space for accessible social events, such as studio space, community kitchens and movie nights in which the neighborhood can also get involved.
A recent study by Statistics Netherlands shows that there are 17.8 million square meters of vacant buildings in the Netherlands. There has been no resident or tenant in it for at least a year. All that vacancy together is as much surface area as 200 thousand new-build apartments. That would offer enough space for all residents of Utrecht (377 thousand!). This is outrageous and with this action we are trying to tackle the housing shortage and the ever-increasing cost of food in our small way.
The building was built in 1988 as a police station and had that function until the early 2000s, after which it functioned as storage for police cars. In early 2024 the building went up for auction and came into the hands of Simon Passier’s and Marc Hoedemakers’ real estate company, Hoedemakers Ontwikkeling. In recent years, more and more real estate has come into the hands of these types of speculators, while rents are skyrocketing and residents sometimes have no choice but to leave their cities. [Read More]
