Interim update: Is Hotel de Zeevaartschool still on track?

Running a hotel is no easy task, let alone building a new hotel, especially if it has to be in a national monument. Joost van Damme, Managing Director of ONILIO, shares the exciting and long process of transforming the former Maritime School in Vlissingen into a luxury hotel.

As an entrepreneur, Van Damme sees an opportunity when part of the former Maritime School becomes vacant in 2018. "After the school closed in 2012, this became a collective building with care-related functions. One of these was a care hotel, which filled a quarter of the building. When this became vacant I started calling, as I saw a lot of potential in this beautiful building with a sea view." First the conversation was about renting one floor and then two floors. "Soon the possibility of buying two floors came up on the table. The owner did not want to do this until there was a regular hotel licence for these floors, but by then we were 2.5 years down the road." 

Meanwhile, Van Damme had set his sights on buying the entire property, but was short of money to do so. "So I asked a property developer friend of mine to calculate what it would cost to build a 4-star hotel in this property," he says. Architect Glenn de Groot (of WTS Architects) made an initial drawing, with 60 rooms. When the operating budget matched the foundation cost, we had 'a case'. I decided to approach an investor with this plan." Under this construction, the investor was given majority ownership of the property, while ONILIO became a minority shareholder. The operating BV, Hotel de Zeevaartschool BV, is 100% owned by ONILIO and will rent the property from the real estate BV after the renovation. 

However, between making the budget and starting the project, things have changed in the world. "2.5 years ago, we were facing skyrocketing inflation. Commodities, personnel costs and interest rates were skyrocketing. The StiKO (foundation cost study, ed.) was no longer correct. So we had to be flexible and adjust the plan on several fronts." Working with the architect, we managed to go from 60 to 70 rooms, creating more space on the income side. "That saved a lot already, but also the offers made were much higher than expected. We couldn't earn anything more from it this way."

Fortunately, this was not the end of Hotel de Zeevaartschool. "You desperately want things to work out. So you start puzzling and seeing what cleverness or concessions you can use to make the plans work. We went through every cost and revenue item with a fine-tooth comb. Numbers of rooms, materials, routing, the interpretation of the striking little tower and the overall concept. Everything went up a notch." The whole process took much longer than Van Damme had thought of beforehand. The property was bought in 2022 and the last tenants left in May 2023. However, the plan to start building after the summer of 2023 proved too optimistic.

"The monument committee also had to agree to our plans. They know what you can and cannot do in this national monument. A whole process was gone through, but eventually we were able to apply for an environmental permit from the municipality." 

The municipality was, and still is, very positive about the plan, according to Van Damme, but the National Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) wanted to take another look at the plans. "This message came richly late and caused some frustration at first. Why did I go all the way through the process locally if it has to be done again at the national level? A number of things that had been agreed now had to be changed anyway. So back to the drawing board again, but fortunately this too turned out well. It all costs a lot of money, time and energy, though."

The story does not yet have a happy ending, as the journey is still ongoing. This is partly due to challenges around power consumption and sustainability. "Unfortunately, we cannot get rid of gas because Stedin does not have enough power capacity available. We also have to deal with grid congestion. Therefore, we are now looking for solutions to possibly generate and store energy ourselves, because we want to operate as sustainably as possible. This just has to be possible and also affordable." Despite these obstacles, Van Damme remains confident in the success of Hotel de Zeevaartschool. "Nothing is certain yet, but hopefully we will soon be able to take the decision to start construction."

ONILIO currently manages five other sites and adds a new chapter to their portfolio with this project. Hotel de Zeevaartschool will have four floors of luxury hotel rooms and suites, and the basement will house 11 compact sailor's rooms. The ground floor will house a restaurant, bar, lounge and reception. To be continued!