Vorst in de Financial Times Afdrukken
26-01-2007
wiels.JPGIedereen spreekt er over, u leest het hier: het artikel van de
Financial Times over Vorst. Volgens George Parker is Vorst dé up and
coming gemeente van het gewest, mede dankzij de komst van het Wiels

Uw gemeenteraadslid is het daarmee natuurlijk volledig eens! Het
artikel toont wel aan dat er werk aan de winkel is om wonen in Vorst
betaalbaar te houden…

Ale and arty

By George Parker

Published: January 12 2007

Paris has the Seine; Brussels has the Senne, a forlorn, forgotten
river that gurgles unseen through the city centre in concrete
conduits. Without a river to give the city a geographical point of
reference, the Belgian capital makes do with its crosstown railway
line.

To the north the railway passes the faded art nouveau splendour and
the strip joints of Schaerbeek then enters the mini-Manhattan around
the Gare du Nord before leaving a ribbon of urban-planning blight
through the city centre, the scar tissue of cut-and-cover tunnelling.
It emerges to the south by the Gare du Midi, the city's main terminus,
before snaking along the immigrant quarters of St Gilles and then
finally out past the neglected commune of Forest.


You might have seen Forest coming into Brussels on the Eurostar train.
The area stretches from the urban decay along the railway line and the beige sprawl of the city's Volkswagen plant up the hill to an
appealing ridge of trees – the traveller's first hint that Belgium is
not completely flat.

The idea of actually living in Forest would traditionally draw blank
looks at the dinner table. Although it has its fair share of
architectural gems and its upper slopes have always been popular with the bourgeoisie, the part down the hill towards the railway tracks has always been regarded as dirty and dangerous. Forest also gives the slightly bizarre impression that it is somehow far from the city centre, even though a map and the efficient public transport system suggest otherwise. Volkwagen's recent decision to shed more than 3,000 jobs at its factory has done little to shift the district's
association with long-term decline.

But things have recently started to change. Forest is in the first
stages of an image makeover that some believe could see turn it from an also-ran among Brussels's 19 communes into something of a frontrunner, offering residents access to the city's high-quality
lifestyle, stylish and spacious accommodation, excellent schools and
magnificent restaurants and bars at less expensive prices than
elsewhere. The value for money is even more striking when compared with Paris or London.

Jean Kioussis, a 43-year-old property developer, put his money where his mouth was in 1999 when he bought a 1926 triple-facade house in Forest for €375,000. In the intervening period the seven-bedroom
property has more than doubled in value but he thinks prices have much further to go. The catalyst, he says, will be the ambitious Wiels
project, which aims to turn part of the old Wielemans-Ceuppens brewery into a contemporary arts centre, in the heart of Forest's most
depressed part. Alongside the usual art spaces, workshops and
exhibitions pulling in international artists, there will be a
café-restaurant, library and panoramic ­terrace; the lower slopes of
Forest have never seen anything like it.

Estate agents believe this initiative could mirror the success of
another Brussels art project – the redevelopment of the old
broadcasting centre in Place Flagey, which propelled a property boom
in the Ixelles commune. Public money is being put up to turn Forest's
modernist industrial buildings into "an essential stop on a visit to
Brussels", Kioussis says.

Forest is still lagging behind some of the other communes that cling
to the slopes leading up from Brussels' central railway corridor. St
Gilles, further in towards the city centre, is already an expatriate
and yuppie target. Gent­rification is creeping down the hill towards
the Gare du Midi and Schaerbeek, with its vast town houses, light
pouring in to their high-ceilinged rooms, is also well established.

Still, there's no question that Forest is beginning to shed the
baggage of its recent past, including riots around the Parc de Forest
and an unsafe reputation. Ten years ago "you would see broken[-into] cars and glass on the pavement every morning," Kioussis says. "Today you don't see anything. There are BMWs, Porsches and Lotus cars – and not just at the top of the hill."

A neighbourhood that had been dominated by immigrants is now home to more Belgians, drawn in by the low prices. Kioussis says that in some parts of Forest today, homes cost half as much as they do in
neighbouring Uccle, the verdant upmarket district traditionally
favoured by old Brussels money.

Giancarlo Agace, the 41-year-old secretary general of the Law Firm
Alliance, recently moved with his young family out of Uccle to the
mid-slopes of Forest, an area that he admits is on the ever-shifting
"front line" of gentrification. Born and raised in Brussels, Agace
says Forest offers a more lively environment with a good mix of
Belgians, British, Spanish and Portuguese, among other ethnic groups.
The district's rising status has been given endorsement by the arrival
in ever-increasing numbers of eurocrats from the European Commission.

He remembers when the site of the Wiels project was better known in
the city as the dumping ground for corpses. Now the renovation
projects are stretching down towards the railway lines. The maisons de maître townhouses around the extensive Parc de Forest and Parc Duden are becoming increasingly sought after.

At the top end of the market, Macnash Associates is offering a
renovated art deco house with garden, jacuzzi, parking and 300 sq
metres of space in upmarket Avenue Victor Rousseau for €860,000. The same agency is selling a 150 sq metre loft in one of the commune's disused industrial buildings for €375,000. Meanwhile Immoweb has a one-bedroom apartment for €80,000 and a two-bedroom apartment for €275,000. A trawl through The Bulletin, the city's essential English-language lifestyle magazine, gives a good idea of how favourably Forest prices compare with those in neighbouring districts.

Agace admits that parts of Forest have some way to go and that his
neighbourhood has only one upmarket restaurant. "But if you have a
modern art centre, it's not long before you have trendy bars and
restaurants," he says.

He also believes the long-awaited urban improvements around the shabby Gare du Midi could jab a finger of gentrification along the railway
lines back towards Forest, adding a further impetus to its
rehabilitation.

Regardless of whether it is Forest or somewhere else in the city,
Brussels has a way of seducing residents with its shabby, liveable,
informal urban style. Bizarrely perceived as something of a dreary
hardship posting by some, many expats end up reluctant to leave,
becoming fiercely defensive about their adopted home.

When Justin Webb, the BBC's former man in Brussels, made a short
report criticising the city – including the valid observation that the
streets are paved with dog excrement – he provoked an extraordinary
outpouring of expat anger and accusations of treachery. Brussels does that to you.
 
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