Today, all parties involved signed the bidbook to redevelop sports- and recreational park Kardinge into a vitality campus. This mixed-use development in the Northeast of the city Groningen focuses on sports-, leisure-, education-, health-, living- and work-related functions in a green and natural environment. With over 1 million visitors annually for the recreational area and 600.000 visitors for the sports centre, Kardinge is attractive to lovers of sports, leisure and nature alike.

But after nearly 30 years the sport facilities (including swimming pool and speed skating and ice hockey rinks) in the area have become outdated and require redeveloping. Infrastructure, buildings and installations are technically obsolete and not environmentally sustainable, and no longer meet the requirements of today’s users.

Moreover, several organisations present in the area would like to see this area transforming into a lively and vibrant part of the City of Groningen:

• The vocational school Alfa-college wants to centralize all their sports and healthcare courses at Kardinge;
• The secondary school Topsport Talentschool Groningen would like to expand its activities in the area; their students are already user of the sports centre and surrounding areas.
• The city of Groningen also wants to promote this development to stimulate the social-economic climate in the adjacent neighbourhoods, and by making a positive contribution to the changing labour market in the city and province and to the transition into an energy-efficient future.
• The City of Groningen wants to develop new homes in the area;
• Within the area development there is also room to improve the accessibility to Kardinge from the surrounding neighbourhoods and the city centre.

The goal of the bid book at this stage is to enthuse and convince the City Council of Groningen that this integrated area development is the way forward to realise  all the ambitions the various stakeholders have with regard to the area and sports centre. For the second stage it is also needed to attract private sector partners so the project does not need to fully rely on municipal funding.

In the upcoming period, all parties will continue to work on a full masterplan for the redevelopment of Kardinge. Entrepreneurs, local residents, athletes and recreational users will be included in this process. By the end of 2022 this joint area vision needs to be finalised and presented to the city council of Groningen. The Stadium Consultancy are the project managers responsible for the delivery of the preferred urban development scenario and the future of the sports centre.