IBB redevelopment fell through because municipality wanted fewer student rooms

Student housing provider SSH has been playing with the idea of gradually replacing the IBB complex with sustainable homes while expanding the number of rooms for students. An elaborate renovation plan was placed on the municipality's table in 2021, ready to be signed. However, SSH withdrew from the project unexpectedly two years later.

Why? The municipality included the IBB complex in a concept plan aiming to drastically urbanise its surrounding area, best known as Rubenskwartier. The document states that part of the student homes at IBB should be replaced with housing for non-students and public amenities. Other parties in the area opted out of the project as well when they heard about these plans.

Municipality changes plans
“We were shocked by the municipality's plans,” says SSH Director Rob Donninger, who talked about postponing IBB's reconstruction in a municipal council meeting at the end of January. He also explained that choice in more detail to DUB. 

The renovation plans date back to 2018 and they were already pretty advanced, according to Donninger. That year, SSH held talks with the alderman to make the IBB complex more sustainable. "It’s a beautiful place to live, but not sustainable enough," he explains. SSH experimented with renovating a few student rooms but concluded that gradual replacement would be a better option. Adding a few floors to the buildings at the edge of the site would result in seven hundred additional homes by 2030.

SSH's renovation plans were recorded in the performance agreement of the municipality, as well as in the Student Housing Covenant of 2020. One year later, all that was left to do was sign it, but in an unexpected twist of events, the municipality decided to postpone it in the summer of 2021.

They did so because of an environmental plan to renew the sewage system at Rubenskwartier and the fact that other parties in the area (such as Diakonessenhuis Hospital, IBB Hof Shopping Centre, and the former sister buildings of the University Medical Centre) were planning to undergo renovations as well. The municipality then concluded that costs could be saved if these parties would cooperate. Besides, the number of parking spaces in the area would be halved and they could have a collective heat supply. The parties were initially willing to cooperate, but it all changed in the summer of 2022 when the municipality shared a confidential "spatial programmatic exploration" about Rubenskwartier.

Part of the IBB complex. Photo by Marcel Hobma

IBB would become unrecognisable
DUB got a hold of this document. It suggests drastically transforming Rubenskwartier at the expense of an expansion of the student housing offer at IBB. It also asks how "one can ensure that the number of social homes and student homes does not increase too much.” An overview map shows that almost half of IBB would be transformed into homes for senior citizens and special target groups, as well as mid-rent homes, workspaces, hospitality, sports fields, and a big parking lot. The plan conflicts with the previously made agreement described in the Covenant and the Action plan for Student Housing, which state that IBB should get more student rooms, no fewer. 

SSH Director Rob Donninger acknowledges the benefits of collaborating with other parties in the area but SSH does not agree with the plan. "IBB would take on a completely different character, it would become hardly recognisable," he says. "We don't support these plans wholeheartedly and I don't think our tenants would either. Besides, in our opinion, these plans have made the process so complex that it is now out of the question for us to start our gradual replacement of IBB buildings before 2025."

SSH is not the only one having second thoughts. Other parties at Rubenskwartier are questioning the plan as well. “Too many people are not sure about it. Besides, we don’t know what the financial impact would be for us,” states Marjolein Klaassen, a spokesperson for Diakonessenhuis Hospital. Following these doubts, the municipality sent the concerned parties a list with discussion topics, so they could reach an agreement together. However, without the mediation of the municipality, it was hard for them to navigate through the various demands and interests of the owners of the building. So, this approach also failed and the parties ultimately decided to either pick up their plans on a smaller scale or postpone them like SSH did.

This IBB building would no longer exist, according to the municipality's plans. No student house would take its place. Photo: Marcel Hobma

Funding for IBB goes to TWC
According to SSH, it’s likely that the IBB complex will not be reconstructed in this decade. The student housing provider plans to make the flats temporarily more sustainable. The money that was going to be allocated for IBB's renovation has now been invested in the Tuindorp West Complex (TWC), whose three buildings are facing a drastic renovation. 

Donninger explains: “As a housing association, we have to borrow money to build things. To obtain these loans, we are assessed based on our operations and how we spend the money. We had 150 million euros available in our budget for 2025, one-third of which was earmarked for IBB. But when we realised that we would not be able to start working on IBB before 2025, we had to decide whether we would leave the money untouched or use it for something else. Renovating TWC costs about the same amount of money and it's just a priority as IBB, so we decided to get that project started."

SSH has already borrowed as much as it can. The student housing provider could borrow more if the real estate market changes and interest rates drop. “IBB is high on our list but there are no concrete plans for now.”

More rooms
SSH's decision to renovate the Tuindorp West Complex instead of the IBB has been met with criticism on the part of students and municipal council members. After all, renovating TWC will not result in more student rooms, while IBB's renovation would. The shortage of student housing in the city is an urgent problem.

According to Rob Donninger, things are more nuanced than that. The seven hundred additional houses planned for the IBB area were only an indicative figure, he explains. "It could also have been less. Besides, the new homes would only become available around 2030 because IBB would be demolished and rebuilt in phases."

He hopes it will also be possible to add units to other projects, such as TWC. "The municipality has given a monumental status to the Tuindorp West Complex because of its unique architecture and split-level houses, which means we cannot build additional rooms. This also applies to the low-rise buildings, even though they do not have the same architecture. If the municipality would grant monumental status to the high-rise buildings only, we'd be able to densify the low-rise ones."

Is it really impossible for the municipality and SSH to come to terms? Donninger says that SSH has already scheduled further talks with the municipality. According to the current plan, it would take another 10 years before the student complex could be rebuilt, but if IBB is detached from Rubenskwartier, the work could start a few years earlier.

In the meantime, several political parties demanded to know whether the plans for IBB could be disconnected from the plans for the area. They sent a letter with questions to the alderman. An answer is expected by the end of March.

The municipality of Utrecht reacts
The municipality considers it desirable to start renovating the IBB complex. We were surprised by SSH's abrupt decision to postpone its redevelopment. SSH had previously insisted on speeding up the project but told us in May 2023 that they had to make choices in their project portfolio due to financial reasons. Whether or not IBB can be renovated earlier depends on the financial capabilities of its initiator, SSH, with whom we are still holding good talks. The municipality has received further written questions from the municipal council, which we will answer first before discussing the redevelopment plans any further.