The business park with Droevendaal at the top, on the left the campus and bottom-right the houses besides the Grintweg. Photo: WUR Born-Oost is the part of the campus on the other side of Mansholtlaan between Droevendaal and Grintweg, currently the home of NIOO and Aeres University of Applied Sciences. WUR wants to develop it into a business park with a floor area of 80,000 square metres. That would double the present area for businesses on campus. Local residents are angry about the plans, which they see as on far too big a scale and much more extensive than they were previously led to believe.
Plans from 2011 were based on limited construction in park-like surroundings. The current plan envisages twice as much office space plus 250 student rooms near ’t Gesprek restaurant. According to WUR project manager Martijn Hoenkamp, this turnaround is because of how the Food Valley has developed. The business premises on the west side of the campus are now all occupied and there is still a lot of demand for space. And Born-Oost is the only option because Wageningen does not want expansion into the Binnenveld rural area.
