Geleidelijkheid is voor gemeenten de sleutel bij herontwikkeling. Een artikel over het door Twynstra Gudde ontwikkelde Drie-fasen model voor de herontwikkeling van industrieel en cultureel erfgoed. Gepubliceerd in BOSS magazine.

1. Gradual approach is municipalities’
key to redevelopment projects
Inner cities are becoming increasingly more complex to redevelop. The scale, the influence of the context and
the number of parties involved have all increased over the past few decades; causing the required decision-
making process within city and town councils to become inherently more complex as well. As a result of the
current credit crunch the involvement and the stimulating effect of property developers has diminished. A
gradual approach, as contained in the Three Phase Model (Driefasenmodel), helps local authorities to create
a Flow: increasing dynamics around an area development in terms of identity, cooperation, feasibility and
public and/or political attention. This article describes why now – more than ever – it is essential to take a
gradual approach to redevelopment.
ir. Wicher F. Schönau and ir. Iljan D. van Hardevelt
A changing playing field
During the past few years various property developers have
become adept at letting existing buildings gradually ‘blend into’
surroundings that are planned for transformation. The so-called
‘TCNflow’isawell-knownexampleofthis.Specifictransformation
of function with limited constructional interference has given
areas such as those around the Media Centrale in Groningen
and the NDSM-werf (shipyard) in Amsterdam renewed appeal.
Large urban redevelopments involve increasingly larger scale
and longer term area development, with the participation of
public and private parties. Even in economically favourable times
the financial feasibility of projects like this is under pressure,
but now, since the credit crunch, market parties can hardly be
expected to take any action at all. Current developments are
being delayed or cancelled altogether. Furthermore, property
developers nowadays are approaching councils or housing
associations to offer them their forward contracts.
Although the division of roles seems to have changed quickly,
the social and political urgency to tackle these areas has
not lessened. In order to act upon this need, municipalities
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2. themselves must take on a steering role. And there’s the rub:
it is the singularity of the municipal organisation that poses
problems at the beginning of projects like these.
The municipality as a developer
Nowadays, a growing number of municipalities are able to put
their real estate to strategic use. The structure of municipal real
estate companies provides insight into the real estate portfolio
and contributes to the professionalization of its management.
One of the advantages in this respect is that unoccupied
premises situated at strategic locations in the city can be
prevented – or created in order to make room for redevelopment.
Municipalities that fulfil a steering role for these buildings are
confronted with the structure of their own organisation, which
is divided into services or directorates, each with their own
councilman or woman, their own interests and their own policy.
An integral (policy) redevelopment approach is by no means a
matter of course.
Moreover, it no longer suffices to have a purely systematic
approach developed over time by realising expansion sites
around cities. Long completion times, a multitude of actors
and factors in the project environment, financial uncertainty
and social attention make project management with a clear
end view in mind quite tricky from a management point of view.
Large investment projects like the Noord-Zuidlijn (metro line)
in Amsterdam show how risky a prematurely fixed framework
can be for administrators in terms of time and money. One
can question whether transparency in decision-making and
accountability is a blessing for realising projects. But it is clear
that there is a need for other kinds of development.
The Three Phase Model facilitates the Flow
The Three Phase Model (Driefasenmodel) developed by
Twynstra Gudde is a development strategy for property owners
of limited means who are under social pressure to take action.
The model is especially useful for municipalities, but also for
housing associations, for instance; it can be applied to areas
as well as buildings.
The Three Phase Model is based on the dilemma of ‘doing
something or nothing’: finding arguments that legitimise a
small-scale start to a redevelopment project. It lays links
between (municipal) policy objectives and a physical spatial
transformation. Structural interventions, corresponding
investments and target groups are scaled up per phase to
find out which ‘type’ of redevelopment will be successful. The
following three development phases can be distinguished:
1.Test phase: Realisation of an attractive environment
2.Growth phase: Concept development and concept
management
3.Development phase: Completion of the practicable
development of the area or building
The figure shows a phased up-scaling: in each phase a good
balance is sought between the structural condition of the
property, suitable users and complementary services.
The property owner’s directions are pivotal in the Three Phase
Model as the property owner is required to take action, but usually
lacks people or means. By collaborating with other parties the
development process can be accelerated with limited means. A
Flow is created; in the Test Phase, activating stakeholders in the
vicinity is an explicit means for getting the dynamics going.
Three ‘development roles’ are crucial in the development
process and they recur in each phase. They can, however, be
fulfilled by different parties.
It seems to be a matter of course within municipal organisations
that either a social development department (e.g., Culture or
Economy) or the spatial development department plays the role2
Images
1 The Fokker School, The Hague
2 Three phases model (Driefasenmodel)
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BOSS Magazine 36 June 2009 5

3. of host. A local partner, such as a cultural entrepreneur, is the
right person for the role of market superintendent because that
person is in first instance able to find tenants for the Test Phase.
So in order to actively collaborate with partners in redevelopment
assignments municipalities must take an integral, cross-
departmental and even cross-organisational project approach.
But that is precisely their weakness: project mandates are
seldom issued across departments, and should they be
issued, then it is with difficulty or they perish due to conflicting
interests – even before they have been put to a council member.
Knowing this, the quality of the administrative order for starting
a redevelopment project is crucial.
Where to start?
A few municipal organisations applied the Three Phase Model.
This led to the realisation that the start of any redevelopment
project requires focus. Redevelopment projects are prompted
in first instance by an administrative aspiration: the initiative is
based on policy principles at this level. It is translated into, for
instance, a directional document. Usually, the planning phase
starts from there, whereby – depending to a certain extent on
the scale of the project – an urban development plan is drawn
up. This is the first concrete measure towards the end vision
to be realised through the development process. The plan is
anchored on an administrative level when the area development
is optimised and can thus be introduced into the municipal
decision process (council meeting), under the condition that
the area development feasibility (GREX) must tally so that a
decision can be made from a project as well as a political point
of view. This way, one can refer to this decision instance in the
follow-up phases because it is the point in time that the terms
with respect to time, money and quality were determined.
The crux of the Three Phase Model lies in the existence of
the Test Phase that precedes the usual planning phase. This
phase provides room for ‘testing’ which concept catches on in
the building or area. By giving the location on temporary loan
to public-oriented artists, for instance, several objectives are
pursued:
- It prevents vacancy
- Accessible accommodation is made available for specific
target groups
- Exhibitions and events contribute to the ‘traffic’ in the area
- A new identity is built up on the site
letting
contract
management
events
ict
products
hospitality
maintenance
interior
facilities
building
visitors
tenants
target groups
staff
building
requirement
continuity
flow
company
exploitation
architecture
land
exploitation
investments
concept
philosophy
territory
services
users
location
determine
concept
ambitions
objectives
develop
steer
secure
realize
test
renew
3 4
Role Task Activities
Host - Offer
preconditions to
users
- Generate ‘traffic’
on site
- Pro-active asset
management
- Give building on
loan
- Provide flexibility
Concept
developer
- Explore location’s
opportunities
- Roll out succesfull
concept
- Set up identifiable
group of tenants
- Programming
- Provide services
Market
superintendent
- Involve local
tenants
- Operational
development
- Subleasing
- Local knowledge
and contracts
6 BOSS Magazine 36 June 2009

4. The amount and flow of visitors in the area can indicate the
success of the functions in place. Information obtained through
the Test Phase is used to develop the concept for the building,
the area and the actual planning.
Starting with a clear concept
Successful concepts are defined on the basis of three mainstays:
location & building, departments & services, users & target
groups.
So by definition, an integral concept works in several policy
areas. A direction document drawn up at the start must act as
a guideline for the decision-making on the concept during the
redevelopment process. The principles with respect to the users
that are sought, for instance, give the concept developer a fall-
back option. In practice and in order to fill the space, involved
parties – not uncommonly a council member – often bring in
users who do not necessarily complement the concept. Indeed,
wrongly chosen users harm the concept and threaten the
success of the redevelopment. Being able to refer back to an
administrative document makes it easier to protect the concept
against external and internal influences.
This is a condition for municipal organisations to properly
manage the concept: monitoring and continuously evaluating
the balance between the three mainstays. This sometimes
implies making decisions that are important for the concept as
a whole (such as a mix of tenants) but may be detrimental for
individual policy areas (e.g., finance).
It is awkward to start up an undefined redevelopment project,
especially in a municipal organisation. Usually, a well-founded
plan must at least demonstrate a project’s financial feasibility
before funding is provided. Although funding can be provided
for each separate phase, it constitutes a part of the total
investment sum. When applying the Three Phase Model it is
not always possible to provide insight into the total investment
because the exact elements of the redevelopment project have
not yet been specified. The user of the model acknowledges
the complexity of the redevelopment and intentionally leaves
room for opportunities that present themselves, but this does
complicate the actual realisation of the project. Making a
decision based on many uncertainties demands a certain
amount of daring from administrators and that is something that
municipal organisations do not originally have.
Images
3 Concept development
4 Concept management
5 The Fokker School, The Hague
5
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5. The Fokker School, The Hague
After gaining experience through the redevelopment of the
Caballero factory and the former Rijksautomobiel Centrale, the
city of The Hague took an integral approach to the redevelopment
of the former Fokker School right from the start. This was not
easy for the municipal organisation, as is borne out by the fact
that more than 20 signatures were required to approve the
project decision.
The Anthony Fokker School redevelopment fits within the
municipal ambition to fully revitalise the Binckhorst area. The
building along Binckhorstlaan used to be a hangar and
educational building. Today it has temporarily been turned into
a multi-purpose building with minimum alterations and is thus
in theTest Phase of its transformation. Ideas for the next phase
are already in place but are still subject to change. The fact that
policy objectives and responsibilities of the Economy, Culture,
Traffic, Real Estate and Property Development departments do
not correspond with each other is a recurring problem when
starting up projects such as this one in The Hague. For instance,
no investments can be made to increase efficiency without
being based on a project decision: municipalities drive by costs
whereas developers drive by yield. As a rule, such decisions take
3 to 4 months which usually creates an impossible situation.
When deciding on usage, a decision often has to be made
between leasing opportunities that fall within the concept and
leasing opportunities that do not meet the criteria. In the case
of the Fokker School, for instance, a major source of income
(weddings and fairs) was rejected in order to stick to the
concept.
The market superintendent role is currently filled by a local party,
the roles of host and concept manager have been taken on by
Real Estate Management and the concept developer for phase
2 is stationed in the Property Development department.
Document for decision-making
Due to the complex context of inner city redevelopment projects
it is best not to make any decisions based on a very strictly
defined result. Municipal administrators want room to link policy
principles with the redevelopment so as to give the project
legitimacy. Furthermore, strict project frameworks veil inherent
risks of future overspending. Although these risks usually go
beyond their term, council members are very much aware of the
visibility of their decisions made in the past.
So a lot has to be done to enable a Test Phase within a municipal
organisation. In first instance, executive officials will not submit
projects that lack sufficient (financial) basis for a decision. If,
however, a document at administrative level provides enough
information to start up an integral redevelopment project, a better
decision can be taken at a later date – after the Test Phase. That
better decision is what we are aiming for: after the Test Phase,
the temporary usage provides more information on:
- Which usage can be successful (which tenants present
themselves)
- The extent to which public opinion appreciates the
redevelopment
- The investment opportunities that parties in the vicinity see in
the redevelopment
- Which concept contributes to the identity of the area
After the Test Phase a decision can be made that provides more
certainty – for example as regards financial feasibility – and also
covers more political risks. So the quality of the decision on the
final redevelopment is much higher when taken after the Test
Phase.
In our view, the very first decision that must be made in order to
start the Test Phase must meet the following criteria:
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6. - The decision has political backing
- The decision is not in conflict with public opinion (at that time)
- The decision is in line with a number of fundamental policy
principles
- The administrators must in potential perceive sufficient support
within their own organisation for the redevelopment
- A clear time limit must be set within which the final decision
(after the Test Phase) is to be taken
In conclusion
Complex redevelopments in municipalities go hand in hand
with a decision-making process containing many uncertainties.
In our experience a gradual process benefits the content of the
project. By using the Flow in terms of up-scaled use, building
on a concept and growing public attention, redevelopments are
more successful. It is recommended to introduce phases into
the decision-making process as well: by not wishing to make a
decision on the entire redevelopment project right at the start,
administrators give themselves the chance to make a better
decision at a later stage. Therefore, the Test Phase of the Three
Phase Model serves not only to test which dynamics can get the
building or area off the ground, it also helps council members
to sense public opinion with respect to the redevelopment. And
last but not least, it provides time and space to arrive at an
integral municipal vision for the redevelopment.
ir. Wicher F. Schönau is a consultant at
Twynstra Gudde. In 2006 he graduated
at Real Estate & Housing (TU Delft), with
a thesis on the role of ambition in the
building process of a new museum. He
specialises in Public Real Estate. Wicher
is a consultant in the field of real estate for
municipal organisations, specifically users
of cultural buildings. He is currently involved
in the development of the Groninger Forum
in Groningen, having previously contributed to the Nieuwe
Rijksmuseum.
ir. Iljan D. van Hardevelt has worked as
a Public Real Estate consultant at Twynstra
Gudde since the year 2000. He focuses
particularly on the art & culture, sports and
creative sectors. The majority of his clients
are in the public domain. During the past
few years Iljan has worked for municipalities,
in most cases as a concept developer. For
the city of The Hague he acted as property
developer from concept to completion.
References
1 Schönau, W.F. & D. de Bruijne (2008) – Geleidelijke herontwikkeling als
investering in waarde (Gradual redevelopment as an investment in value). In:
Property Research Quarterly, December 2008.
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Images
6 The Fokker School, The Hague
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