Parts of Tessenderlo Chemie land reserve activated
Tessenderlo-Hasselt, 17 December 2010. The investment company LRM will be purchasing 33 hectares of industrial land from Tessenderlo Chemie. LRM will develop this zone into a new 24 ha business park, with individual plots sized from 0.5 to 2 ha. In doing this, LRM will be meeting the demand of both smaller and medium-sized businesses. The commercialization is planned for 2012.
24 ha of new business park
LRM will be purchasing a total of 33 hectares of industrial land from Tessenderlo Chemie. The land, situated along the Industrieweg and the Fabrieksstraat, borders the current Tessenderlo Chemie industrial site, but is not essential for any further expansion of the company’s core activities.
The industrial land will be developed into a new 24 ha business park, surrounded by an approximately 9 ha green buffer zone. This new zone will be located around 4 km from the E313 slip road complex at Ham-Tessenderlo. This guarantees good road access.
LRM is proactively looking for new opportunities for development
Stijn Bijnens, General Director LRM: ‘The fact that there is space to start a business is an important trump card for Limburg. LRM is making this notion tangible by actively developing business parks. The contract with Tessenderlo Chemie is a good example for other players.’
Quite a few larger companies have a strategic land reserve, which means not all existing empty plots are available. We also noticed that there is a constant demand for additional SME zones. To meet this demand, we, in cooperation with POM-Limburg, are trying to convince companies to activate their strategic land reserves. On the other hand, we are also trying to encourage councils to develop SME zones together with LRM. We have the knowledge and means to realize these plans in a short space of time. For a lot of councils, this is a deciding factor to work with us.
Plots for small and large businesses
LRM will divide up the land at Tessenderlo in plots ranging from 0.5 to 2 ha. This way, there is space for both small and medium-sized companies. According to a first estimate, there will be room for 25 businesses in the new business park. The commercialization is planned for 2012.
Jos Vanhees, Site Director Tessenderlo Chemie: ‘The sale is part of our decision to activate the company’s non-strategic assets, to be able to invest the money made available in our core activities. We will retain enough industrial land as reserve.’
Fons Verwimp, Mayor of Tessenderlo: ‘Our companies are in need of well-equipped plots to realize their growth and ambitions. From a historical point of view, the job market in Tessenderlo has always been dependent on a few large companies. With this development, we can attract additional SMEs, which will give our job market a sustainable boost.’
About LRM
LRM is a profit-driven investor that offers entrepreneurs a unique combination of venture capital and real estate. LRM's activities contribute to the economic development and the general employment in Belgian Limburg. LRM is oriented towards all sectors and companies, from start-ups over growing SMEs to large enterprises. Today, LRM is active in five domains: ICT & Media, Life Sciences, Cleantech & Energy, SMEs & Large enterprises.
www.lrm.be
About Tessenderlo Chemie
Tessenderlo Group is an international chemicals company with over 100 locations worldwide. More than 8,000 people work for the group. The group is a world and European leader in most of its product areas with a consolidated revenue totaling 2.1 billion EUR in 2009. The Ham and Tessenderlo production sites (known as Tessenderlo Chemie) employ about 1,300 people. These sites produce base products for PVC, water treatment, fertilisers, feed ingredients and for many other applications in daily life such as soap, cosmetics and medicine.
Further information:
LRM
Jeffrey Alenus
Commercial Director
T +32 11 24 68 19
M +32 475 93 03 61
E j.alenus@lrm.be
Tessenderlo Chemie (Media Relations)
Kathleen Iwens
Communication Manager
T +32 13 610 292
M + 32 478 664 555
E kathleen.iwens@tessenderlo.com