Project developer releases plans for new renovation of pier in Scheveningen

The pier in Scheveningen may be rebuilt again around ten years after the last redevelopment. A project developer released the plans for the building work on Tuesday. The complex would have more hotel rooms in it under the new plans. The Ferris wheel is likely to stay on the pier.

Project developer RE:BORN, a fellow owner of the Pier, wants more green areas around the Pier. There should be a small park at the entrance to the boulevard and a park on the blow-out deck. The structure also needs to be more sustainable and energy efficient.

The plan also involves the pier having a conference center under the Ferris wheel. The project developer wants to build an “extensive spa and wellness area.”

If the plans are approved then the construction will start in 2026. The walking promenade, the long stem of the pier, would be scheduled to open a year later. The three ‘islands’ above sea would be reopened in 2028.

According to RE:BORN, the redevelopment would cost several dozens of millions of euros. The company says coverage has been arranged for this.

The plans are not definitive yet. The municipality has to agree with them. Alderman Robert van Asten (Urban Development) does not want to get ahead of things but responded: “The pier is an icon for Scheveningen and The Hague with international recognition. We want to keep that for the city and make it accessible to everybody. The pier can start buzzing again.”

Scheveningen got its first pier in 1901. It was a wooden construction directly behind the Kurhaus. The German occupiers demolished it in 1943. In 1961, Prince Bernhard opened the current pier, located 100 meters further north.

The 300-meter-long Pier has been a well-known attraction for decades. The Van der Valk group took over the structure in 1991 for a symbolic fee of 1 guilder. A fire broke out on the Pier in 2011, and Van der Valk declared the Pier bankrupt a year later.

Due to a lack of maintenance, the structure was already a ruin. Visitors were not allowed on it. Construction company Kondor Wessels bought the pier in 2014. The structure was renovated and redecorated with a hotel and a Ferris wheel; a part of the pier was demolished.

Since 2015, the walking pier has been in use. However, the Hague warned in 2022 that large parts of the pier would have to be renovated in the short term, or there would be a threat of another closure.