7
— A bumper year for ION
employees, which requires more office space.
Our lives have been ruled by the corona
In addition, we are crossing the Flemish
pandemic for over a year now. Still, we kept
border and are setting up in Wallonia as well!
up our team spirits because, after all, fun is
Pierre Gielen, 100th employee and Business
in our DNA. We kept looking to the future and
Manager for Wallonia, tells us more.
were able to secure some exciting projects. Our own successes allowed us to give the In terms of business, ION actually had a
cultural sector a boost by supporting “The
bumper year. Without a doubt, one of our
Spring Sessions.” For this online series of
greatest successes is the renovation of
concerts, Jef Neve invites a Belgian guest for
Antwerp’s iconic Boerentoren (“Farmer’s
each concert and puts on a fantastic music
Tower”). We are embracing this challenge
show. You can read in an interview in this
together with Katoen Natie Groep and will
magazine what the Flemish composer thinks
be converting the former KBC building into a
about culture post corona.
unique culture tower. We are revealing some of the details in an interview with Fernand
— Looking towards the future
Huts now, but we will certainly come back to
Just like Jef Neve, we are very much looking
this later in the year.
forward to a future where more will be possible, even if it no longer seems that far
Of course, the Boerentoren is not our only
away. We trust this magazine will inspire and
project. Other projects include Burenberg in
motivate you to keep going!
Leuven, HaZee in Ostend, and Suikerpark in Veurne, three great examples of putting sustainability
first
through
innovative
techniques and smart designs. With these
Davy Demuynck and Kristof Vanfleteren
projects, we demonstrate that the environment
CEOs and Co-founders
is at least as important as the architecture. Paul Thiers — Innovation, growth, and commitment We have also been very active in terms of innovation. ION Residential Platform is the first institutional housing platform in Belgium to make long-term investments in the residential rental market. We sensed that the time had come to introduce this type of entrepreneurship in Belgium. We are fully committed to this joint venture together with Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors, and CBRE Global Investment Partners. It is clear that our ambitions are continuing to grow. Consequently, we are taking on more
Chairman and Co-founder
'We are always looking to the future.
