Council of State scraps Unibail contract at Neo

The Council of State has overturned the award of a contract for the first phase of Europea, the conference and leisure complex (formerly known as Neo) planned by the City of Brussels for the Heizel plateau. The contract was awarded to the consortium Unibail and the case brought by competing bidder Hammerson. The Council of State, following the advice issued earlier by its auditor, found the reasons given for the award “unconvincing”.

Europea (pictured) will be the largest urban development project in Europe, with 81,000 square metres of shopping and leisure facilities, office and living space and a conference centre. Only a company or group of companies with €1 billion in capital and a portfolio of property projects worth €2 billion were allowed to bid for the project.

In April this year, the contract was awarded to the Paris-based Unibail, which specialises in shopping centres. The group owns 83 shopping centres across Europe, as well as 10 convention and exhibition venues in the Paris region.

Competitor Hammerson, based in London, has 20 shopping centres, 22 retail parks and nine outlet villages in the UK and France. 

The Council of State found the consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of the two competing contracts “not convincing” and in two of the five criteria “incoherent”. Unibail won the contract by only two points over Hammerson, while the criteria described by the Council of State as incoherent accounted for 70 points.

The council, which rules on decisions taken at government level, found this to be grounds enough to strike down the award of the contract.

The decision will have limited impact on the progress of the project, according to Brussels-City alderman for finance, Philippe Close. “Our teams are analysing the ruling to determine how the procedure can be taken forward,” he said. “We respect the decision of the Council of State, even although we find the annulment of the contract regrettable.”