CityPorts Rotterdam

The Firth of Clyde Forum were delighted to welcome our first international speakers to this conference. Monique de Knegt and Annemiek Baljon from CityPorts Rotterdam presented the ambitious and exciting developments on the post industrial port land around Rotterdam.

Please click here for the full presentation or read on for a summary of the talk.

Monique began by showing the location of the Port of Rotterdam on the Netherlands coast. The port is in the industrial centre of the Netherlands coast and the driving force of the Dutch economy. It is the number one world port contributing 7% to the Dutch GNP. Around 380, 000 people are directly or indirectly employed by the port.

The city of Rotterdam itself is the second in the Netherlands with over 600,000 inhabitants with a cosmopolitan mix of 162 nationalities. While it has the youngest population of Europe, the average skills level is low.

Aerial photo showing location of CityPorts Rotterdam © CityPorts Rotterdam

The Port Vision 2020: Objectives for the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam contained aims and objectives to strengthen the port’s competitive position, strengthen the city and regional economy and to improve living and environmental conditions. CityPorts Rotterdam was established in response to a number of drivers. The port activities were continuing to be scaled up and deep-sea shipping was progressively moving to the west of the city where the deeper waters required were available. It was also established to combat the risk of downgrading and the needs of restoring brownfield sites. There was also a growing demand for new economic activities, housing and facilities.

It was decided to re-allocate newly reclaimed land west of the city to the Rotterdam Port functions. Meanwhile a transformation plan for the former port land was drawn up. In contrast to the strategy pre 1990 which focussed on large quantities of social housing and use was mono functional, the focus up to 2010 is on urban redevelopment and good quality of multifunctional land uses. Planning further into the future from 2010 to 2030, the focus is on economic redevelopment, sustainable growth and structural improvements. Again, multifunctional land uses will be focussed on.

CityPorts itself was founded by order from the city council as a public limited company. The port and the city have equal shares in CityPorts and the organisation was set up to be “lean and mean”.

CityPorts was tasked the exploitation and management of the new developments in the former port area, corporate planning, projects, communication and the formation of strategic alliances.

In 2005 CityPorts Rotterdam and their shareholders had jurisdiction over 1000 hectares land and 500 ha water. Handling 42 million tonnes of transhipments, it has become a port area with immense dynamism and a well functioning, living area. There are around 850 enterprises working there directly employing 20,000 and housing 2000 inhabitants. It is a very varied site, fully operational with a surprising residential area in the middle and a fascinating maritime atmosphere. However, its drawbacks are that it suffers from an increasingly congested infrastructure and shows some wear and tear.

CityPorts Rotterdam 2030 aims for 10,000 additional jobs, 10,000 – 15,000 residential units housing 30,000 inhabitants, improved urban amenities and attracting over 1 million visitors each year. It is planned to do this by facilitating existing enterprises, creating space for new enterprises, using the opportunities offered by the water, providing excellent access and transport connections, maximising urban and natural qualities of the site, creating novel living environments and making the environment the mainstay for the area’s qualities.

By 2015, the plan is to renovate the Heijplaat area, the small residential core in the centre of the former port area. This is mixed use area which was formally the shipyard company village. The area also includes container terminals, maritime industries and services and has some squatters in the former quarantine area. By 2015 there are also plans to establish a new Scheepvaartkwartier. The old Scheepvaartkwartier was a quarter comparable to the Merchant city in Glasgow, where the important companies had their offices. The aim is to develop a modern version of it in the CityPorts area for the large maritime companies such as shipping agencies. Finally, there are plans to create opportunities for the creative and leisure sectors, establish public transport over water and possibly also urban development in the Merwehaven area.

CityPorts Rotterdam will build alliances and partnerships, for example with Rotterdam Polytechnic College, Woonbron Rotterdam Housing Association, Port Enterprise organisations, residents associations, local primary schools and local artists. The Droogdok 17 is a former dock building which is being regenerated into a centre for creative economies, exhibitions and conference facilities. The projects and activities planned include new enterprises to be housed in the empty shipyard buildings, Droogdok research, design and manufacturing centre, watertaxi services, a children’s’ art quay on the former wharf space, the Heijsehaven redevelopment and restructuring part of the village.

The CityPorts presentation showed how former industrial land, similar to that around the Firth of Clyde can be regenerated in a very exciting, innovative and sustainable, in economic, environmental and social term, manner. It was a great start to the conference and informed and contributed to the debates held for the remainder of the conference. The Firth of Clyde Forum really appreciated the chance to learn from such an interesting project elsewhere in Europe.

For further details please visit www.cityportsrotterdam.com

Droogdok 17 © CityPorts Rotterdam