Aalsmeer has put Fort bij Kudelstaart up for sale through a tender that only professional monument organisations can enter, according to a notice published on TenderNed on 2 November.
The fort, built in 1907, is a rijksmonument (a national monument) and part of the Stelling van Amsterdam, now the UNESCO World Heritage site Hollandse Waterlinies.
The notice gives 12:00 on 20 November as the closing time.
A sale with strings attached
The tender combines the sale with monument maintenance work, and the notice says the council wants the fort professionally managed and kept in good condition after the sale.
It is a niet-openbare (restricted) procedure, in which interested parties first apply and the council then selects who may bid.
The buyer will receive €981,000 from the council to clear overdue maintenance and repair the roof, Aalsmeer Vandaag reported.
Once the fort is sold, the council stops paying about €400,000 a year to keep it, according to Nieuws in Aalsmeer.
A costly ten years
Aalsmeer bought the fort from the national government’s property agency more than ten years ago, and its total costs since then run into the millions, Nieuws in Aalsmeer reported.
Those costs include compensation paid in 2023 to developer De Liefde, whose large-scale Zeilfort plans for the site met strong resistance from neighbours.
The neighbours fought the plans in court through the Stichting Werkgroep Fort Kudelstaart, and at the end of 2023 a judge struck down the changed zoning plan.
The vote and the likely buyers
On 13 May the council approved the sale to a professional monument organisation with the support of 75% of its members, Aalsmeer Vandaag reported.
FlorAalsmeer and Absoluut Aalsmeer voted against, and their amendment calling for clearer conditions before the sale was rejected.
About 30 organisations in the Netherlands hold this status, and Stadsherstel Amsterdam is reportedly a serious candidate, according to Nieuws in Aalsmeer.
Councillors have floated watersports, the marina and scouting as possible future uses, but the current zoning plan leaves little room for new uses and is expected to be revised.
What happens next
Once a buyer is selected, the council will sign a sale agreement, and the new owner is expected to find a lasting use for the fort.
The notice does not give a minimum price, the number of parties invited to bid, or a date for choosing the buyer.
Photo: Kudelstaart fort by Wikifrits, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons