The provincial government of Limburg is purchasing the central car park for the education campus in Diepenbeek from Flanders for a sum of over €2.6 million. Under the guidance of POM Limburg, the car park will in the future be transformed into a campus heart with all kinds of amenities and student quarters.
In 2020, POM Limburg designed a master plan for the Diepenbeek education campus, which will be christened Limburg DC in the future. Limburg DC will be a lively, sustainable, green campus based on the American model, where knowledge institutions, the business world and stakeholders can meet. In order to fulfil this ambition, the provincial government of Limburg is buying the current car park from the Agency for Roads and Traffic (AWV) of Flanders for the sum of 2,663,640 euros. With this purchase, the provincial government and POM Limburg are taking further control of the development of the education campus in Diepenbeek.
Spade in the ground
“We have since started developing the Health Campus and the Construction Campus. A gatehouse and parking building were designed for that first campus, and a parking building was designed for the Construction Campus. The ground will be broken for both buildings as early as this year,” explained Deputy for the Economy and Chairman of POM Limburg Tom Vandeput. “But to achieve a true campus experience, we want to address the entire campus. This purchase is necessary for that, because the current car park is the heart of the campus.”
Campus heart
In the future, the car park will be transformed into a campus heart, with student housing on the sides and student facilities, sandwich bars and other services on the ground floor. In the next phase, the area between the university, UCLL and these facilities – the current car park – will be transformed into the central heart of the campus, with an events field, slow connections, meeting spaces and plenty of sustainable greenery. The car park will be retained during the works, to be moved to a parking building to be developed at a later stage. A jury will select a private party to develop the student quarters and campus heart.
Modal shift
“An important element for us is the connection between Limburg DC and the surrounding cities and municipalities. This will be through fast bicycle connections on the one hand, but we hope that Spartacus can also play a major role in this. There really is a need for a modal shift. Along with the knowledge institutions, we will sit down with the Minister about this soon,” said Tom Vandeput.
