EIB backs Brussels hospital

A €282 million sustainable hospital project in Brussels, Belgium, is being supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB), with work starting in 2013 and a completion date of 2017.

The contract to finance the work has been signed between the EIB and its partners on the project – CoCom (Common Community Commission, the body responsible for bilingual hospitals in the Brussels region) and hospital group Chirec, which is a private group formed in the last 15 years through the merging of smaller hospitals in Brussels.

There will be a contribution of €50 million in equity, a loan from several conventional banks (KBC, ING, Belfius and BNP Paribas), and €100 million from the EIB. The amount from the EIB will be guaranteed by CoCom.

The site chosen for the new hospital, Delta, is at the Boulevard du Triomphe in Auderghem.

Chirec has five hospital sites – four in Brussels and one in Walloon Brabant – plus a medical centre in Brussels. By 2017, when the new hospital opens, Chirec will have three hospital sites – Delta with 500 beds, St Anne/St Rémi with 300 beds, and Braine-l’Alleud also with 300 beds. It will have several polyclinics as well.

The Delta hospital will be about 95,000m², consisting of seven storeys including two below ground.

The Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital region, Charles Picqué, said that the development of the Delta project enabled another Chirec hospital site in Brussels, Edith Cavell, to be redeveloped into nearly 17,000m² of residential housing.