A new city centre for Rotterdam-Zuid

Creating a future for this area together

Urban development Hart van Zuid

Hart van Zuid will be the new bustling city center of Rotterdam South. From 2016, the area around the Zuidplein shopping center and Ahoy will undergo a total metamorphosis for this purpose. Not only do Ballast Nedam and Heijmans provide the development, design and the realisation, they also manage and maintain various public buildings and the public space for the municipality of Rotterdam. Over the next twenty years we will contribute to good economic, spatial and social cohesion.

  • 20 year cooperation
  • 9 subprojects
A robust main structure ensures that the area can actually develop. This includes the Ahoy exhibition halls, which we are significantly renovating and expanding with an international conference center, a new swimming pool and a new theater with library (Pand Z). In this project we are also renovating the public transport hub, which welcomes 13 million passengers a year.


Providing and retaining its own character

An inner-city area always presents challenges, but Hart van Zuid is extra complex. This is because it has many different types of users, including commuters, international conference visitors and the residents of the South - a critical group who must come to regard the area as their home. In order to give Hart van Zuid its own character and to allow it to be retained, we are not building everything new. We are also reusing some of the buildings.

Improving the living environment

An important part of the project is a social program. This consists of involving the neighborhood; in Public Private Neighborhood Cooperation, stimulating craftsmanship in the neighborhood and social return. We do this in part through the (temporary) jobs and internships for young people that we create. Close consultation with the local community should lead to an improved living environment and an own identity, a Hart van Zuid that everyone is proud of.

Follow the project via the website.

More information?

Bedrijfsdirecteur Ballast Nedam Development Onno Dwars
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