Real estate magnate Paul Gheysens, the CEO of project developer Ghelamco, has long wanted to build a large golf course between Natiënlaan, Kalvekeetdijk and the railway in Knokke-Heist. Since 2007 he has been purchasing land to realize that project. In addition to a golf course, he wants to build a luxury hotel with 150 rooms and 200 suites, as well as a conference center, 1,350 parking spaces and about ninety flats for employees. Since April 2023, Gheysens also had the building permit. However, this is now being called into question.
Some of the grounds on which Gheysens wants to realize the project are in danger of slipping through his fingers. In September 2020, a purchase agreement was concluded for these lands with a company owned by Peter Taffeiren, a local resident who has collected 12 hectares around his farm in Heist in recent years. The farm is located right next to the proposed Gheysens golf course.
However, in the sales compromise, Taffeiren had explicitly stated that Gheysens could only use the land for the development of the game of golf. But a hotel would also be built, as well as a road for slow traffic in dolomite and a water feature.
Another condition was that Gheysens’ golf project should not obstruct Taffeiren’s unobstructed view of the surroundings. But the plans showed that Gheysens wanted to plant plantations of at least four meters high, and he wanted to raise the ground for the golf course itself by at least two meters. For all these reasons, Taffeiren had terminated the sales agreement.
Rightly dissolved
Ghelamco then went to court to oblige the other party to still execute the purchase agreement. The court now rules that although the compromise was legally concluded, its dissolution was also justified. The court is not only concerned about the construction of the slow road and the water feature, but also about the planned meter-high plantings and elevations of the site.
The court ruling calls into question Gheysens’ entire golf project as it had been conceived until now. One of the conditions that Flemish Minister for the Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA) imposed last year when issuing the building permit was that Gheysens had to be the owner of all the land. “The works can only be started once the initiator owns the entire site or has authorization to carry out the works on the entire area,” Demir reports in a press release. “If these conditions are not met, the requested project cannot proceed. It’s that simple.”
New request?
Taffeiren had also argued in court that Ghelamco had exerted ‘undue pressure’ during the sale, but the judge did not consider this proven. Paul Gheysens can still appeal against the court decision. De Standaard could not reach him for a response on Monday. He told De Tijd that he may withdraw his permit application and submit a new application without Taffeiren’s site. “His land is only 1 percent of the total and is on the side. It is better to go around it,” the newspaper quotes him as saying. Gheysens calls it “not insurmountable” that he will have to wait at least 18 months for such a new permit.
Minister Demir does not want to anticipate a new application, but is less certain. “Every new application requires a new assessment of the amended file, with opportunities for consultation,” she notes. “A favorable decision in a new application is therefore not a certainty.”
