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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Friday, October 17, 2014 | M3
MANSION THE MARKET
Antwerp Needs Its Space The Belgian city’s creative elite have led a charge to convert old commercial spaces into open-plan residences; now lofts edge out historic townhouses as the most sought-after real estate; room for pools, huge terraces
L0FTY IDEAS Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel paid more than $1.27 million for half a warehouse that they turned into a 6,994-square-foot duplex, above. Max and Thea Berger converted a loft in a former military hospital into a threelevel, 5,380-square-foot home, bottom. The Museum aan de Stroom, right.
Some of Antwerp’s Roomiest Homes for Sale
Frame24
Thierry Pirsoul
LOFT LIVING STILL HAS an alternative feel in much of Europe—but not in Antwerp. In Belgium’s creative hub, some of the city’s most expensive homes are former warehouses and other commercial spaces converted into huge open-plan apartments. The city is known today for its innovative fashion design, its dominance in the diamond-cutting trade and its thriving container harbor. But Antwerp’s commercial prowess stretches back centuries, and the city is rich in historic commercial structures. The residences carved out of those buildings are demanding prices, per square foot, that can far outstrip those of the early 20th-century townhouses that were once the city’s most prestigious homes. High-end lofts often offer sprawling terraces, river views and swimming pools. Many of the sellers of these prized homes are the urban pioneers of the 1990s and early 2000s who found large living spaces at bargain prices. Since then, says Bart Cassiers, managing partner of De Boer & Partners ImmobliĂŤn Groep, a chain of Flemish real-estate agents, “the market has kept growing and the prices have kept going up.â€? Eilandje, just north of the historic center, is known for its converted lofts. Its heyday, starting in the early 19th-century, gave way to decades of decline in the modern shipping era. Today, it draws loft-hunters to its thriving restaurant and shopping scene—presided over by the Museum aan de Stroom, or MAS, an architectural landmark that opened in 2011. One current listing there is a 4,900-square-foot former warehouse floor with a direct view of MAS. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home has an 860-square-foot terrace and a kitchen with marble floors. The asking price is $2.9 million. Nearby, a new complex fashioned from a cluster of structures once belonging to a shipping company is selling a 3,228-square-foot, open-plan penthouse with its own pool and 2,690 square feet of outdoor space. The asking price is $3.55 million. Serge Hannecart, chief executive officer of Antwerp-based L.I.F.E., the project’s developer, says this corner of Eilandje, the Bonapartedok, built during Belgium’s Napoleonic occupation, is the most expensive. Just east of Eilandje is an up-andcoming loft district called Dam, where the city is restoring a maritime feel. One listing—a 6,888-square-foot loft converted in 2005—has a 430-squarefoot terrace that will soon offer an unobstructed harbor view after the city finishes work on the area. The asking price for the four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment is $2.85 million. Many of Antwerp’s creative elite have turned to loft living. Boris Vervoordt, a second-generation member
Clockwise from top: Dennis Brandsma/EH&I; Shutterstock; Steven Massart/Poponcini & Lootens Architects Engineers
BY J.S. MARCUS
$2.85 million
$2.4 million
Zuid district, Coebergerstraat Four bedroom, four bathroom
Dam district, Kalkstraat Three bedroom, three bathroom
This loft was created out of the third floor of a warehouse near Zuid, a gentrified neighborhood south of the city’s center. The 10,222-square-foot home has two large terraces totaling 5,918 square feet. Agent: Philippe Rummens, Engel & VÜlkers Antwerp
This 6,886-square-foot loft was converted in 2005 from the top floor of a 1910 warehouse on the outer edges of Antwerp’s aging docklands area, which is undergoing a transformation to restore a harbor feel. It features a 430-square-foot terrace. Agent: Philippe Rummens, Engel & VÜlkers Antwerp
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of an interior-design and antiques dynasty, lives in a 16th-century warehouse that was once a coffee-roasting plant. The two-bedroom, three-bathroom home near Antwerp’s cathedral takes up the whole building, since Mr. Vervoordt and his American husband, Michael Gardner, created a master suite on the top floor in 2010. On the other side of town, near the Diamond District, Antwerp-based Dutch furniture designers, Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel—a married couple better known as Studio Job—bought half of a warehouse in 2006. They paid just over $1.27 million for the raw space, to create a 6,994-squarefoot duplex with one bathroom, one sleeping area, 3,766 square feet of terraces and vast areas to exhibit their collection of mid-20th-century objects. Mr. Smeets estimates he could get more than $2.54 million if he put the loft on the market. “I always think of the total investment,� says the 44-year-old designer. Mr. Smeets had decided against buying and renovating an old townhouse, because “the floors are always screeching,� he says, and the warren of tiny rooms wouldn’t allow him amenities such as a home gym. Studio Job designed some stainedglass windows for a new Antwerp restaurant called the Jane, built in an old chapel on the grounds of a former military hospital that dates to 1907. The complex, called the Green Quarter, has 420 planned units in new and historic structures. Raw spaces, with selling prices from $380,000 to $570,000, were snapped up in a matter of months in 2010 and 2011, says Philip Rubbens, the complex’s project director. The final phase of construction will be completed in 2016, he adds. Max and Thea Berger selected one of the largest lofts in the complex and undertook a yearlong renovation, completed this summer. Working with a local architecture firm, they put a two-story structure in the middle of the 3,228-square-foot room, with 25-foot ceilings, to create a lower-level master suite and an upper-level study. Under the main space is a private ground-floor entrance; above it is a self-contained guest room. Now they have a total of 5,380 square feet on the three levels—reached by private elevator. The Dutch couple, in their early 60s, kept the original ceiling height in the living and dining areas, and accentuated the oversize dimensions in the dining area with antique French street lamps, suspended from the ceiling. “We are more or less addicted to space,� says Mr. Berger, a retired food-company executive. East of the city, the Vervoordt family is turning an old distillery into a mixed-use complex with about 100 residential units, including high-end lofts. A 4,734-square-foot apartment, fashioned in the top of a grain silo, has space for three bedrooms and three bathrooms—for $3.17 million.
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