Amsterdam Absurd Artists vs. Urban Resort
A handful of artists had stayed to resist eviction amongst the 70 tenants who lived in Broedplaats Surinameplein 35 (SUP). I’m one of them. Urban Resort managed to get a court hearing at an unprecedented speed in 5 days; they argued that renovations are starting on October 7th.
We lost our case, and we had to leave in a hurry and we still don’t know why. Reasoning from the judge takes more than two weeks to arrive.
While renovation plans haven’t been filed with the Municipality yet, Urban Resort already has signed an agreement with the owner of the building; Vesteda, which is a multi-billion euro housing corporation. After a short renovation, they agreed to maintain SUP for another 5 years just for businesses and ateliers. No more living allowed.
Artists’ breeding ground was breeding fear for years
A whole community was living under constant eviction notice. Fear and desperation were lingering around our house and put a constant choke on our daily life.
Urban Resort told the tenants every half year that we would have to go in 2-3 months. Half of the people just panicked and left. Just right before we would actually to go, Urban Resort would send us a letter with the ‘happy news’; we can stay another 6 months.
And again, and again, and again...
“We are gonna lose our reputation with Vesteda.” The Directors of Urban Resort told us that’s why we had to leave our home. They never offered any help to the 70 people who didn’t have a place to go. They were only interested in maintaining their business model. To rent out buildings under the ‘leegstandwet’ would create these ‘temporary breeding grounds’. In the case of SUP, it was temporary for 10 years. Over these years, Urban Resort issued double contracts, so they can charge more for the living and working spaces to satisfy Vesteda’s hunger for profits.
That is a good deal of tax-free income for Vesteda; in our case overcharging fees adds up to almost one million euro.
Originally the whole square of Surinameplein grounds was given by the Dutch Society for Public Housing ( Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Volkshuisvesting) and by the municipality to ‘Stichting Pensioenfonds van de Koninklijke Nedlloyd te Rotterdam’.
It is a Dutch non-profit pension fund that secures the hardworking sailors benefits by providing social housing for the people of Amsterdam. “Welke uitsluitend werzaam is in het belang der volkshuisvesting” translates to “Which works exclusively in the interests of public housing” was written in the original deeds of establishing housing on the Surinameplein grounds. In 1997, the wave of privatization hit the Pensioenfonds Nedlloyd too, and it was broken up into 3 different subsidiaries. Later on all these companies were sold to Vesteda in 2018. Public property turned into private.
Even the Amsterdam Municipality is interested in helping the former tenants to buy the building to create a permanent place. Vesteda already turned them down, their real estate speculation will go on till 2031. That’s when Vesteda’s lease ends and it’s up for negotiations again. In the meantime anybody can bid on it, raising the price of this prime location at the south end of Vondelpark.
We are living in the most absurd times. While the World is on fire the ex-squatters are evicting young artists from Amsterdam. Broedplaats Surinameplein is not the last to be evicted by Urban Resort. Hundreds of creators will need to find a new home in the city they love and built.
In the end, corporate greed plus bad deals equals losing the Soul of Amsterdam.
As of this date 11-12-2024 no renovations have started at SUP.
History of SUP eviction:
www.at5.nl/artikelen/228857/ultieme-reddingspoging-bewoners-creatieve-broedplaats -sup
www.at5.nl/artikelen/228892/sup-bewoners-definitief-weg-amsterdam