Scheveningen Pier is for sale

The Scheveningen Pier is being put up for sale. The Van der Valk concern, which purchased the characteristic landmark in 1991 for the symbolic amount of 1 guilder, said it no longer saw the point of keeping it.

The family-owned Dutch hospitality chain revealed at the end of 2011 that it no longer wanted to invest in the pier. This announcement came a month after part of the complex was heavily damaged by a brief, raging fire. The family says now that it hurts them to have to part with the pier but that it costs more than it brings in.

Van der Valk had plans to build a hotel on the pier but the supports are apparently too weak for this. More things didn’t go their way. Environmental rules, complaining businesses and area residents, and a municipality which didn’t meet its commitments and didn’t make any new plans, according to Van der Valk. The pier is no bargain anymore. The company is now asking a normal price for it.

The Municipality of The Hague said that it would not purchase the Scheveningen Pier. It is calling upon project developers and other companies to buy and fix up ‘this icon of the city’. The pier is an important part of the Scheveningen Master Plan. Until now no project developer has shown interest in renovating the pier as outlined in the master plan.

The current pier was built in the 1950s. Prince Bernhard was at the opening in 1961. The first pier was built in 1901 and the pavilion was subsequently used by the Germans as a depot during the Second World War. The pier burned down on 26 March 1943.