Scheveningen pier declared bankrupt, no buyer found

Scheveningen pier has been declared bankrupt after its owners, hotel and catering family Van der Valk, failed to find a buyer.


The pier was put up for sale in March but parts of it were closed to the public in November because it is no longer considered safe.
The Van der Valks bought the pier in 1991 for the symbolic amount of one guilder. ‘We have tried to make the pier a profitable enterprise but the returns are too thin. We can better invest the millions needed elsewhere,’ Rob van der Valk told the Telegraaf when the sale was announced.
Maintenance
A spokesman for The Hague city council said the local authority presumed ‘Van der Valk will continue to take care of the maintenance’. A spokesman for the company told Nos television this would not be possible.
A number of other companies currently use the pier and it is not clear what will happen to them, Nos said.
The original pier was designed in 1900 and stretched 380 metres into the sea, ending in an octagonal platform with a pavilion used for music performances.
During World War II, the pavilion was used by the German occupying forces for storage. In 1943 the Germans tore down the pier by sawing off the piles. The new pier was officially inaugurated in 1961.

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